In writing the above description, considerable assistance has been derived from the manuscripts of the late Mr.
Curtis, among whbse papers was found an unfinished account of this plant, evidently drawn up for the purpose of
being inserted in some future number of the Flora Londinensis, and made from fresh specimens gathered by himself
fn 1797, in Darn Wood, near Dartford. The individual here figured comes from nearly the same place, and
was collected by Mr. Graves, who found it in the greatest profusion on the 10th of May last, completely covering
some banks about the wood. In France, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Italy, and the more southern parts of
Germany it abounds ; but in England it is of comparatively rare occurrence, though Mr. Turner and Mr. Dilhvyn,
in their Botanist’s Guide, enumerate six British counties of which.it is a native; and, subsequently to the publication
of that work, it has also been detected on the cliffs at Marychurch, adjoining Babbicombe Hill, Devonshire,
by the Rev. Aaron Neck, and by Mr. James Turner in Glamorganshire, at Caswell Bay.
The colour of the corolla o f this plant distinguishes it at first sight from the other two British species of Li-
thospermum, one of which has white and the other pale-yellow flowers; the latter (Z. officinale) has also its leaves
beautifully veined; and the former (Z. arvense) has the tube of its corolla scarcely longer than the calyx; in which
points they likewise differ from L . purpuro-cceruleum.
Haller, in his Flora Helvetica, compares the flowers of this species to those of a Pulmonaria ; but surely he
miffht have likened them with more justice to those of the Anchusce, and particularly of A. officinalis, which our
plant resembles, at a cursory view, more perhaps than any other individual of the British Flora.
We find no mention made by any author o f any medical or other purpose to which L . pwrpuro-ccerukim is
applicable: if cultivated in a garden, it grows readily; but to flower freely, requires a light rich loamy soil, with a
little chalk.