AL'KANET (dim. of Sp. alrana, from Ar. al, the hinna), Anrhusa. A genus of plants belonging to the natural order Boragi nacere. The species are herbaceous plants, rough with stiff hairs, and having lanceolate or ovate leaves, and spike-like, braeteated, lateral, and ter minal racemes of flowers, which very much resem ble those of the species of llyosotis, or forget-me not. The common alkanet (Anchusa oflicinalis) grows in dry and sandy places, and by waysides, in the middle and north of Europe. It is rare and a very doubtful native in Great Britain. The flowers are of a deep purple color. The roots, leaves, and flowers were formerly used in medicine as an emollient, cooling, and soothing application. The Evergreen Alkanet (Anehusa sempervirens) is also a native of Europe, and a doubtful native of Great Britain, although not uncommon in situations to which it may have escaped from gardens, being often cultivated for the sake of its beautiful bite flowers, which ap pear early in the season, and for its leaves, which retain a pleasing verdure all winter. It
is a plant of humble growth, rising only a few inches above the ground. A number of other species are occasionally seen in our flower bor ders. Anelmsa tinetoria, to which the name Alkanet or Alkanna (Ar. al-ehennch) more strictly belongs, is a native of the Levant and of the south of Europe, extending as far north as Hungary. The root is sold under the name of alkanet or alkanna root ; it is sometimes cul tivated in England; but the greater part is im ported from the Levant or the south of France. It appears in commerce in pieces of the thick ness of a quill or of the finger, the rind blackish externally, but internally of a beautiful dark red color, and adhering rather loosely to the whitish heart. It contains chiefly a resinous red coloring matter, to which the name alkanet is often applied. ( See ALKANET below. ) Vir ginian alkanet is probably a species of the genus Lithospernmm.