Corolla funnel-form, the tube about equalling the 5-parted calyx, and throat closed with 5 obtuse scales; lobes rounded. Stamens included. Nutlets depressed or convex, oblique, fixed near the apex to the base of the style, roughened all over with short barbed or hooked prickles.—Coarse herbs, with a strong scent and petioled lower leaves; the mostly panicled (so-called) racemes naked above, usually bracted at base. Fl. all summer. (Name from κύων, a dog, and γλῶσσα, tongue; from the shape and texture of the leaves.)
C. officinàle, L. (Common Hound's-Tongue.) Biennial; clothed with short soft hairs, leafy, panicled above; upper leaves lanceolate, closely sessile by a rounded or slightly heart-shaped base; racemes nearly bractless; corolla reddish-purple (rarely white); nutlets flat on the broad upper face, somewhat margined.—Waste ground and pastures; a familiar and troublesome weed; the large nutlets adhering to the fleece of sheep, etc. (Nat. from Eu.)
1. C. Virgínicum, L. (Wild Comfrey.) Perennial; roughish with spreading bristly hairs; stem simple, few-leaved (2–3° high); stem-leaves lanceolate-oblong, clasping by a deep heart-shaped base; racemes few and corymbed, raised on long naked peduncles, bractless; corolla pale blue; nutlets strongly convex.—Open woods, Ont. and Sask. to Fla. and La.
3. ECHINOSPÉRMUM, Lehm. Stickseed.
Corolla salver-form, short, imbricated in the bud, the throat closed with 5 short scales. Stamens included. Nutlets erect, fixed laterally to the base of the style or central column, triangular or compressed, the back armed all over or with 1–3 marginal rows of prickles which are barbed at the apex, otherwise naked.—Rough-hairy and grayish herbs, with small blue to whitish flowers in racemes or spikes; ours annuals or biennials, flowering all summer. (Name compounded of ἐχῖνος, a hedgehog, and σπέρμα, seed.)
[*] Racemes panicled, leafy-bracteate at base; slender pedicels recurved or deflexed in fruit; calyx-lobes short, at length reflexed; biennial, not hispid.
1. E. Virgínicum, Lehm. (Beggar's Lice.) Stem 2–4° high; radical leaves round-ovate or cordate, slender-petioled; cauline (3–8´ long) ovate-oblong to oblong-lanceolate, acuminate at both ends; loosely paniculate racemes divaricate; pedicel and flower each a line long; nutlets of the globose fruit equally short-glochidiate over the whole back. (Cynoglossum Morisoni, DC.)—Borders of woods and thickets, N. Eng. to Minn., south to Va. and La.
2. E. defléxum, Lehm., var. Americànum, Gray. Diffusely branched, about 1° high, leaves oblong to lanceolate, racemes lax, loosely paniculate; flowers small; nutlets of the globular-pyramidal fruit only marginally glochidiate.—Iowa, Minn., and northward.
3. E. floribúndum, Lehm. Rather strict, 2° high or more; leaves oblong- to linear-lanceolate, the lowest tapering into margined petioles; racemes numerous, commonly geminate and in fruit rather strict; corolla larger (blue, sometimes white), 2–3´´ in diameter; nutlets scabrous and margined with a close row of flat subulate prickles.—Minn. and Sask., and westward.
[*][*] Racemes leafy-bracteate, stout pedicels not deflexed; calyx becoming foliaceous; leaves linear, lanceolate, or the lower spatulate; hispid annuals.