Boraginaceæ Borage Family

Herbs with alternate or rarely opposite, entire, leaves and usually rough hairy stems. Flowers perfect, regular, mostly blue, in 1-sided curled spikes; corolla 5-lobed, stamens as many as the corolla lobes and alternate with them; fruit mostly of 4 1-seeded nutlets.

Nutlets armed with barbed prickles. Lappula.

Nutlets not armed with barbed prickles.

Racemes without bracts; corolla flat, round. Myosotis.

Racemes with bracts; corolla funnel-form. Lithospermum.

Lappula floribunda (Lehm.) Greene. False Forget-me-not.

Rough hairy, stem stout, paniculately branched, 2—5 feet high, the branches nearly erect. Leaves oblong, oblong-lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, 2—4 inches long, sessile, obtuse or acute at the apex, the lower narrowed into long petioles. Flowers 5-lobed, bright blue with a yellow centre ⅛ to nearly ⅓ of an inch broad in numerous erect, dense racemes, nutlets ⅙ of an inch long, keeled tuberculate on the back, the margins armed with a single row of flat barbed prickles, on pedicels less than their own length.

In moist, open ground, frequent throughout the Rockies; a striking plant with heads of bright blue flowers, resembling large forget-me-nots flowering in June.

Lappula diffusa (Lehm.) Greene. False Forget-me-not.

Similar to the preceding species, but not so tall and with broader acute leaves. Flowers larger, ½ an inch broad, not so numerous; and larger, more densely prickled nutlets, ¼ of an inch long, on pedicels more than their own length.

Throughout the Rockies, probably more common than the previous species, in moist, more or less shaded or open ground; flowering in June.

Lappula Lappula (L.) Karst. Stickseed.

Pale, leafy, rough, 1—2 feet high, the branches erect. Leaves linear and linear-oblong, sessile or the lowest spatulate and narrowed into petioles ½—1½ inches long, obtuse. Flowers very small, about the length of the calyx, blue, in one-sided leafy-bracted racemes; nutlets papillose on the back, armed with 2 rows of slender barbed prickles.

In open or waste ground throughout the region, especially on or near the railway; flowering throughout the summer.

a Lappula floribunda (Lehm.) Greene. False Forget-me-not. b Lithospermum linearifolium Goldie. (⅔ Nat.) Narrow-Leaved Puccoon.

Myosotis alpestris Schmidt. Forget-me-not.

Stems tufted, erect, 3—9 inches high. Leaves oblong, linear, or lanceolate, hairy, 1—2 inches long. Flowers in rather dense heads; corolla flat, bright blue with a yellow centre ¼ of an inch or more broad, 5-lobed.

Frequent throughout the Rockies in alpine meadows and on grassy slopes; flowering during June and early July.

Lithospermum linearifolium Goldie. Narrow-leaved Puccoon.

Erect or diffusely branched from the base, 6—12 inches high, minutely rough-hairy. Leaves all linear, sessile, acute, 1—2 inches long. Flowers of two kinds, leafy-bracted, at the ends of the branches, the earlier bright yellow, ½ an inch broad with a tube an inch or more long, the rounded lobes crenately erose; the later flowers small, inconspicuous and pale.

Dry sandy soil in the valley of the Bow River at Banff, the showy flowers in May and early June.