2c8 FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. 



delta, Coleophora onosmella, Marbled Clover (Heliothis dipsaceus), 

 Small-angle Shades (Euplexia lucipara). 



Echiiim, Dioscorides, is from the Greek name of the plant or a 

 similar one, and the second name suggests that it is of common occur- 

 rence, which is not generally so. 



Bugloss means Ox Tongue because of the roughness of the leaves. 

 The name Viper's Bugloss is bestowed because there is some fanciful 

 resemblance between the seeds and a viper's head, or the spots on the 

 stem like a viper's skin. Blue Bottle, Blue Weed, Wild Borage, Bu- 

 gloss, Viper's Bugloss, Cat's-tail, Blue Cat's-tail, Viper's Grass, Iron- 

 weed, Langdebeef, Our Lord's Flannel or Our Saviour's Flannel, 

 Snake Flower, Snake's Bugloss, Viper's Herb. Lyte explains the 

 name Viper's Bugloss by the following quaint legend: "For as the 

 ancient Nicander writeth, Alcibiades (being asleepe) was hurt with a 

 serpent; wherefore when he awoke he saw this hearbe, he tooke of it 

 into his mouth and chewed it, swalowing downe the juyce thereof; after 

 that he layed the herbe being so chewed upon the sore, and was healed. 

 It is very good against the bitings of serpents and vipers, and his seede 

 is like the head of an adder or viper." 



Even Gerarcle recommends it as an ophifuge, "as it keepeth such 

 from being stung as have drunke it before, the leaves and seeds do the 

 same ". This mythical remedy is of course arrived at by the logic of 

 the Doctrine of Signatures. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



219. Echium vulgare, L. Stem simple, erect, rough, upper leaves 

 lanceolate, sessile, narrow below, radical leaves ovate, stalked, flowers 

 red then blue, in scorpioid cymes, lateral. 



Bittersweet (Solanum Dulcamara, L.) 



Poisonous and rather addicted to artificial habitats, this plant has 

 none the less an ancient history, being found in Preglacial beds in 

 Suffolk and Interglacial beds in Sussex. At the present day it is 

 found in the North Temperate Zone in Europe, N. Africa, West Asia, 

 as far east as India; and in North America it is an introduction. In 

 Great Britain it does not grow in Cardigan, Brecon, Radnor, Mont- 

 gomery, Merioneth, Peebles, Selkirk, Aberdeen, Banff, W. Highlands 

 except Clyde Islands and Ebudes; N. Highlands except E. Ross, i.e. 

 elsewhere from I slay and Ross southward. It is found in Ireland and 

 the Channel Islands. 



Bittersweet is a plant of waste ground as well as a common hedge- 



