WILD FLOWERS OF NEW YORK 233 



tip. Calyx lobes five, equal, triangular-ovate, pointed, shorter than the 

 calyx tube. Corolla one-fourth to one-third of an inch broad with five 

 rounded lobes, light blue with a yellow eye. Stamens five, not projecting 

 out of the flower; ovary four-divided, in fruit becoming four small, angled 

 nutlets. 



In brooks, marshes and wet meadows, Newfoundland to New York, 

 Ontario, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. Said to be a native of Europe, 

 but well established and common in many places, often far from habitations. 

 Flowering from May to July. 



Blueweed; Viper's Bugloss 



Echium vulgare Linnaeus 



Plate l6la 



A very bristly-hairy, biennial, herbaceous weed, with a long, black 

 taproot, the erect, spotted stem i to 2\ feet high and finally much branched. 

 Leaves entire, hairy, oblong to linear-lanceolate, 2 to 6 inches long, sessile, 

 with the exception of the basal leaves which are narrowed into long 

 petioles. Flowers showy, bright blue (pinkish in bud, reddish-purple when 

 old), numerous, clustered on short, one-sided, curved spikes which are densely 

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

 deeply five-parted, corolla about an inch long, funnelform, unequally five- 

 lobed with five reddish stamens inserted on the tube of the corolla, unequal 

 in length and exserted beyond the corolla. Fruit consists of four roughened 

 or wrinkled, one-seeded nutlets, dark brown, fixed by a flat base, sharply 

 angled on the inner face, rounded on the outer, possessing a fancied 

 resemblance to a serpent's head, whence the plant derives one of its com- 

 mon names. 



Native of Europe, thoroughly naturalized throughout the eastern and 

 middle states in waste places, roadsides and fields, preferring limestone and 

 gravelly or poor soil. It seems to have been introduced into this country 

 as early as 1683, and is now a troublesome weed in pasture lands and old 

 fields. 



