GAMOPETAL^: 115 



chalk it may be found on chalk grassland or pasture, 

 where it is abundant. It is also found on the coast 

 in shingle beach communities. 



In habit Viper's Bugloss is erect. The root is 

 spindle-shaped. The stem is erect or ascending, 

 stout, leafy with spreading prickly hairs, unbranched. 

 The radical leaves form a rosette, narrowed below 

 into a stalk, lying on the ground, at length withering. 

 The stem-leaves are linear to lance-shaped, or oblong 

 with a round base, stalkless, acute. 



The flowers are in a short cyme, which is curved 

 backwards and lengthens in fruit. The bracts are 

 linear. The flowers are reddish-purple, then bright 

 blue, or rarely white. The five sepals are linear, the 

 calyx longer than the tube of the five-lobed corolla, 

 with an oblique limb. The four stamens are exserted, 

 the fifth included. The nutlets are inserted on the 

 receptacle, and are rough and angular. 



The plant is tall, being from 1-3 ft. high. It 

 flowers in June and July, and is a herbaceous annual 

 or biennial. 



The conspicuous flowers, all turned one way, con- 

 tain a large amount of honey, and are attractive to 

 bees and other insects. Muller observed more than 

 100 insect visitors to this one flower alone. The 

 stamens are attached to the tube just below the 

 wider part. The fifth stamen makes the tube two- 

 chambered as it were, the other four lying in the 

 lower part. When the flower expands the anthers 

 ripen, and the pollen is shed upwards. At this stage 



