220 ECHIUM. [CI.ASS V. ORDER i. 



CLASS V. 

 PENTAN'DRIA. 5 STAMENS. 



ORDER I. 



MONOGYN'IA. 1 PISTIL. 



GENUS I. E'CHIUM. LINN. Viper's Bugloss. 



Natural Order. BORAGIN'EJE. DE CAND. 



GENERIC CHARACTER. Corolla irregular, with a short ffibe, the 

 limb campanulate, obliquely fi ve-lobed, the two upper largest, the 

 lower acute and reflexed. Stigma deeply cloven. Nuts covered 

 with little tubercles. Name t^*;, a viper ; so called because it was 

 said that it and some allied plants would heal a wound made by 

 the sting or bite of a viper. 



1. E. vulga're, Linn. (Fig. 288.) common Viper's Bugloss. Bristly 

 and warty, stem simple, herbaceous, leaves lanceolate, flowers in short 

 lateral spikes, tube of the corolla shorter than the calyx. Stamens 

 longer than the corolla. 



English Botany, t. 181. English Flora, vol. i. p. 269. Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 98. Lindley, Synopsis, p. 163. 



Root long tapering. Stem from one to three feet high, round, erect, 

 simple, hairy, (as is the whole plant), and rough, with pale rigid bristles 

 arising from a tuberculated base. Leaves lanceolate, single ribbed, 

 the lower ones with footstalks spreading, the upper narrower and 

 sessile, of a dull green. Inflorescence terminating the stem in a long 

 compound spike. Spikelets arising from the axis of the upper leaves, 

 crowded, recurved. Flowers unilateral, sessile, from the axis of a narrow 

 bractea. Calyx of five linear segments, mostly of unequal lengths. 

 Corolla bell-shaped, downy, its tube shorter than the calyx, the seg- 

 ments acute. Stamens longer than the corolla, frequently of variable 

 lengths, and one is often not longer than the corolla. Anthers oval. 

 Pistil longer than the stamens. Style hairy. Stigma deeply cloven, 

 spreading. Nuts four, spreading, rough, with tubercles. 



Habitat. Old walls, road sides, and waste places frequent, espe- 

 cially in a light, sandy, or gravelly soil. 



Biennial ; flowering from June to August. 



Of whatever use this plant may have been formerly, it is now entirely 

 neglected ; but, as an ornament to the road sides and fields, perhaps 

 none of our native plants surpass it, either in the beauty or duration of 

 their flowers. Its rows of rosy buds, as they expand, contrast admira- 



