( 662 I
A N C H U S A officinalis.
Common Alkanet.
by
PENTANDRIA Monogynia.
G en. C har. Cor. funnel-fhaped : its orifice clofed
with valves. Seeds hollowed out at the bafe.
Spec. C har. Spikes imbricated, the flowers all on
one fide. Braéteæ ovate. Leaves lanceolate.
Syn . Anchufa officinalis. Linn. Sp. PI. igi. Sm.
FI. Brit. 214. FI. Dan. t. $7 1 .
A. tinfloria. TFoodv. Med. Bot. t. 92.
Buglofla vulgaris. G er. em. 798.
F o r this entirely new acceffion to the catalogue of Britifli
plants, we are indebted to the Rev. Mr. Thomas Butt, of
Areley, Staffordthire, who found it plentifully, and to all appearance
perfe&ly wild, on. the links near Hartley Pans in
Northumberland, and favoured us with living fpecimens. It
is perennial, flowering in June and July.
Root fpindlefhaped, black on the outlide. Whole herb rough
with briftly hairs. Stem about 18 inches or two feet high,
ereft, angular, leafy, a little branched, panicled at the top.
Leaves alternate, lanceolate, acute, entire, fcarcely at all waved
or crifped in the margin; the upper ones ovate at the bafe.
Spikes generally in pairs, revolute; all the flowers thickly fet
on one fide, and pointing upwards. As the ftalk lengthens, they
become more remote. Bra&eas ovate. Calyx deeply five-cleft.
Corolla red at firft, then deep purple, clofed with hairy concave
valves. Seeds brown, pointed, with a little fpace hollowed
out at their bafe.
The whole plant is mucilaginous; but neither its fenfible
qualities, nor any effe&s it produces in practice, are fuffieient
to account for its antient reputation as a cordial, which, as Dr.
Woodville well remarks, (Suppl. p. 10), is rather to be attributed
to the wine in which it was adminiftered. It is neceflary to
obferve that t. 92 of the Medical Botany reprefents our plant,
the real A. tinStoria being very different. T. 214 of the Supplement
to the fame work feems rather A. undulata of Linnaeus.