6 à c 480 ]
M Y O S O T I S fcorpioides.
Moufe-ear Scorpion-grafs.
P E N T A N D R I A Monogynta,
G en. Char. Cor. falver-fhaped, 5-cleft, flightlynotched?
its orifice clofed with concave valves.
Spec. Char. Seeds fmooth. Leaves elliptic-lanceolate.
Clutters of many flowers, without bradteæ.
S yn . Myofotis fcorpioides. Linn. Sp. PI. 188. Hudf. 78.
Relb. 7 5 .
M. arvenfis. Sibth. 68. With. 225.
M . fcorpioides hirfuta. Ran Syn. 229.
(2 M. fcorpioides paluftris. Linn. Sp. P I 188. Curt.
Land. fafc. 3. t. 13. RaiiSyn. 229.
M.paluflris. With. 225. Relb. 76. Sibth. 6%.
T
H E fimaller variety of this plant, reprefented entire in our
figure, is common on dry fandy or gravelly hillocks, generally
near water upon heaths; it is alfo frequent in fallow fields : and
a Hill fmaller variety, with flowers entirely yellow, grows on
walls. It is annual, flowering throughout the fummer. The
large variety, of which we exhibit only a branch, Mr. Curtis
having given the whole plant, is faid to be perennial; a matter
we have never been able to verify, and are inclined to doubt.
It grows in ditches and clear fprings, to which its enamelled
blue flowers, generally pink in the bud, are a diftinguifhed
ornament. There is alfo a variety much like this aquatic one,
but more hairy, figured in Ray’s Syn. by Dillenius, t. 9. We
are perfuaded thefe make but one fpecies. No plant varies
more palpably in fize and hairinefs. The teeth of the calyx in
the aquatic kind are indeed generally fhorter and blunter, which
is made a fpecific diftinflion by feveral ingenious authors quoted
above, and has almoft ftaggered us : as to hairinefs, it varies,
like every other part. The fhape of the leaves is pretty con-
ftant. Linnaeus characterizes them as callous at the' tip, which
is not very generally perceptible. Neither are the lobes of the
corolla fo evidently or conftantly notched as his generic definition
implies.