Anchusa

1835, Philip Miller, "Anchusa", entry in The Gardener's Dictionary, Volume I, 9th Edition, page 430, Anchusa and Cinnabar were used by the antients to give an agreeable colour to their ointments; and Pliny tells us that where the anchusa was used, they added salt to prevent the oil in those compositions from becoming rancid.

Unfortunately, anchusas have the defect of being coarse in appearance, with hairy leaves and stems which are neither elegant nor graceful.

Related to the common annual form of forget-me-nots (Myosotis), the two species of anchusa produce some of the bluest of the blue flowers in the plant kingdom, and both are easy to grow.