_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.=
[Sidenote: =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.
[Sidenote: =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.
[Sidenote: =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.
[Illustration: _a_ Lappula floribunda (Lehm.) Greene. False
Forget-me-not.
_b_ Lithospermum linearifolium Goldie. (⅔ Nat.) Narrow-Leaved
Puccoon.]
[Sidenote: =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.
[Sidenote: =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.