From Blue to Purple 



Viper's Bug-loss; Blue-weed; Viper's Herb or 

 Grass; Snake-flower; Blue-thistle 



(Echium vulgare) Borage family 



Flowers — Bright blue, afterward reddish purple, pink in the bud. 

 numerous, clustered on short, i -sided, curved spikes rolled 

 up at first, and straightening out as flowers expand. Calyx 

 deeply 5-cleft; corolla 1 in. long or less, funnel form, the 5 

 lobes unequal, acute; 5 stamens inserted on corolla tube, 

 the filaments spreading below, and united above into slen- 

 der appendage, the anthers forming a cone, i pistil with 

 2 stigmas. Stem: 1 to 2 l /z ft. high ; bristly-hairy, erect, 

 spotted. Leaves: Hairy, rough, oblong to lance-shaped, 

 alternate, seated on stem, except at base of plant. 



Preferred Habitat — Dry fields, waste places, roadsides. 



Flowering Season — June — J uly . 



Distribution — New Brunswick to Virginia, westward to Nebraska; 

 Europe and Asia. 



In England, from whose gardens this plant escaped long ago, 

 a war of extermination that has been waged against the vigorous, 

 beautiful weed by the farmers has at last driven it to the extrem- 

 ity of the island, where a few stragglers about Penzance testify to 

 the vanquishing of what must once have been a mighty army. 

 From England a few refugees reached here in 1683, no one knows 

 how; but they proved to be the vanguard of an aggressive and 

 victorious host that quickly overran our open, hospitable country, 

 as if to give vent to revenge for long years of persecution at the 

 hands of Europeans. " It is a fact that all our more pernicious 

 weeds, like our vermin, are of Old-World origin," says John Bur- 

 roughs. ". . . Perhaps the most notable thing about them, 

 when compared with our native species, is their persistence, not 

 to say pugnacity. They fight for the soil ; they plant colonies here 

 and there, and will not be rooted out. Our native weeds are for the 

 most part shy and harmless, and retreat before civilization. . . 

 We have hardly a weed we can call our own." 



Years ago, when simple folk believed God had marked plants 

 with some sign to indicate the special use for which each was 

 intended, they regarded the spotted stem of the bugloss, and its 

 seeds shaped like a serpent's head, as certain indications that the 

 herb would cure snake bites. Indeed, the genus takes its name 

 from EcJi/'s, the Greek for viper. 



Because it is showy and offers accessible nectar, a great va- 

 riety of insects visit the blue-weed; Miiller alone observed sixty- 

 seven species about it. We need no longer wonder at its fertil- 

 ity. Of the five stamens one remains in the tube, while the 



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