EC H 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



EC H 



483 



9. Echium Lsevigatum ; Smooth-stalked Viper's Bugloss. 

 Stem even ; leaves lanceolate, naked, scabrous about the edge 

 and at the tip ; corollas equal ; the stems are also under- 

 shrubby, and about a foot in height; leaves smooth, except 

 that they are scabrous with mucronate callous dots about 

 the edge, along the keel, and at the tip above ; racemes from 

 the axils of the upper leaves, pointing one way, and smooth ; 

 calix smooth; corolla but slightly irregular; stamina declined; 

 seeds muricate. Native of the Cape of Good Hope. 



10. Echium Italicnm; Wall Viper's Bugloss. Stem her- 

 baceous, hairy; leaves linear-lanceolate, strigose, hirsute, the 

 lower ones nerved ; corollas nearly equal ; stamina longer 

 than the corolla; the stalk is upright and hairy ; the flowers 

 are produced in short spikes on the side of the branches ; 

 they are small, and sc.-rcely appear above the calices; the 

 calices are very hairy, and cut into acute segments. Some 

 plants have white flowers, others purplish. 



11. Echium Rubrum; Red Viper's Bugloss. Flowers in a 

 long spike made up of little short racemes; corollas nearly 

 equal; leaves hispid ; stem erect, about a foot high, rough, 

 and covered with red points ; radical leaves long and lance- 

 olate, hairy, deepish green above, paler below, and with a 

 strong back-nerve; stem-leaves smaller and narrower; spike 

 of flowers about a foot long, consisting, as in the Common 

 Echium, of a great many separate spikelets, or smaller 

 flowering spikes, proceeding from the aloe of the small 

 leaves, and at first coiled as usual, rather small than large, 

 of a palish red, and with nearly equal and somewhat trian- 

 gular segments ; antherse pale blue. It grows plentifully in 

 Hungary, where it is a native. 



12. Echium Vulgare; Common Viper's Bugloss. Stem 

 tubercled and hispid ; stein-leaves sessile, four or five inches 

 long, all lanceolate, quite entire, scabrous, and hairy on both 

 sides; flowers in lateral spikes, numerous, those of each 

 spike pointing one way, and closely wedged together'. The 

 whole plant is hispid ; the stem often, and the leaves in some 

 instances, beautifully spotted with red ; the hairs on the stem 

 rise from glossy purplish black tubercles; the root-leaves 

 form a tuft, nearly two feet long, petioled. Corolla before 

 it expands, of a fine red, afterwards of a bright blue, which 

 varies to pale red and white ; if the colour be blue, the stems 

 are bluish, the stamina purple, and the bulbs from which the 

 hairs spring are blood-red ; but if the corolla be pale red, then 

 the other parts of the flower are of the same colour, and the 

 hair-bulbs are yellow; and if it be white, all the parts of the 

 flower are of the same colour, arid the hair-bulbs are green ; 

 the outside of the corolla is set with short hairs, and marked 

 with five rising ribs, extending from the middle of each seg- 

 ment down to the base; the upper and lateral segments are 

 rounded, the lowest somewhat pointed ; the filamenta are red, 

 and longer than the corolla, sometimes much longer, and 

 sometimes very little longer, or barely equal to the upper seg- 

 ment; antherse gray; style very hairy; germina imbedded in 

 a fleshy receptacle. It is a showy plant; and such is the 

 absurdity of fashion, that if it were not common, it would 

 assuredly obtain admittance in our gardens. It is biennial, 

 and appears abundantly once in three years, in the corn-fields 

 of Cambridgeshire, where it is known by the name of Cat's 

 Tail. Bees are fond of the flowers ; but, unfortunately for 

 those useful and interesting insects, the strong hairs of the 

 corolla and style often tear their wings. Hill informs us, that 

 the leaves, especially those growing near to the root, make a 

 good cordial by infusion, which operates by perspiration, and 

 alleviates fevers, headaches, and all nervous complaints. 



13. Echium Violaceum ; Violet-flowered Viper's Bugloss. 

 Corollas equal to the stamina; tube shorter than the calix ; 



stem a foot high, branching at the top and bottom ; the hairs 

 are soft, and some of them rise from tubercles ; these are 

 hardly if at all discernible on the leaves, though they are on 

 the stem, where they are intermixed with short hairs, not 

 rising from tubercles ; corolla deep blue, half as long again 

 as the calix, at the bottom of the two upper segments, beset 

 both within and without with hairs, which give it a whitish 

 colour. Found near Norwich, in England. Native of Austria 

 and Germany. It flowers in July. 



14. Echium Creticum ; Cretan Viper's Bugloss. Stem 

 procumbent; fruiting calices distant. It has trailing hairy 

 stalks, about a foot long, putting out several side-branches ; 

 leaves lanceolate, hairy, about three inches long, and three- 

 quarters of an inch broad, sessile; the flowers come out on 

 slender spikes, upon long peduncles, from the axils ; they are 

 large, of a reddish purple, and turn to a fine blue when dried. 

 Native of the Levant. There is a variety with branching 

 stalks, a foot and a half long, declining towards the ground, 

 and covered with stinging hairs ; leaves four inches long, and 

 not more than half an inch broad, pretty much warted, and 

 hairy : the flowers grow in loose spikes from the sides of the 

 stalks, and also at the ends of the brandies ; they are of a red- 

 dish purple colour, but not so large as those of the preceding; 

 and the stamina are longer than the corolla. This plant is 

 annual, and the most beautiful of the whole genus : to pro- 

 pagate it, the seeds must be sown every year where they are 

 designed to remain, and the plants require no other culture 

 but to keep them clear from weeds, and to thin them where 

 they grow too close; they flower in July, and their seeds 

 ripen in five or six weeks after. The seeds of the other sorts 

 being sown in the spring, will, in the second summer after, 

 produce flowers and seeds, after which they seldom continue. 

 They delight in a rubbishy gravelly soil, and will grow upon 

 the tops of old walls or buildings, where, when they have 

 once established themselves, they will drop their seeds, and 

 thereby maintain a succession of plants without any care ; 

 and on these places they will appear very beautiful. 



15. Echium Orientale ; Oriental Viper's Bugloss. Stem 

 branched, about three feet high, an inch thick, pale green, 

 hard, solid ; stem-leaves ovate ; flowers solitary, lateral ; root 

 above a foot long, and two inches thick, mucilaginous, and 

 sweetish ; the lower leaves are fifteen or sixteen inches long, 

 and four or five inches wide, pointed, whitish-green, satin- 

 like above, and cottony underneath, with a strong midrib ; 

 they diminish considerably along the stem, not being above 

 half a foot in length ; they are also less cottony than the for- 

 mer, and much more pointed: branches about half a foot long; 

 both they and the top of the stem are rough with strong hairs, 

 accompanied by leaves about an inch and a half in length. 

 All these branches are subdivided into smaller ones, bending 

 like a scorpion's tail, and loaded with flowers an inch and a 

 half in length, of a pale blue colour, with two red bands on 

 three of the segments, on a bright purple ground, scentless; 

 calix almost as long as the corolla, rough with very large hairs; 

 style almost as long as the corolla, slightly villose, and purple. 

 Found by Tournefort in the Levant. 



16. Echium Lusitanicum ; Portugal Viper's Bugloss. 

 Corollas longer than the stamina ; the lower leaves are more 

 than a foot long, and two inches broad in the middle, gradu- 

 ally lessening to both ends, and covered with soft hairs ; the 

 stalks grow two feet high; the flowers are in short spikes 

 from the sides of them. Native of Spain and Portugal. 



17. Echium Serieeum ; Silky Viper's Bugloss. Leaves 

 linear, awl-shaped ; stem suffruticose, both hoary. Stems 

 several, diffused, woody at the base, simple, a palm or more 

 in height, soft at bottom, somewhat rugged at top, hoary, with 



