■ TiUT. 71 



During May, and the foUoTvIng months, the 

 different species of viper's bngloss exhibit their 

 handsome purple, violet-coloured, or pale blue 

 flowers. None are more beautiful than our 

 ■wild kind, {Echhim viiJgare,) but many are very 

 ornamental. The red viper s bugloss, which, 

 however, is not yet in flower, is a showy plant, 

 though the stems and leaves are rough with 

 bristly hairs. It grows on the steppes of Russia, 

 for those vast regions approaching the Black Sea, 

 though dreary from the absence of trees, are 

 enlivened with a variety of flowers, of which 

 this is among the most conspicuous. Dr. 

 Clarke says he saw it here, and it was in other 

 parts of Russia more common. It grows 

 chiefly among corn. The women of the Don 

 use it in painting their cheeks, the root, while 

 fresh, yielding a bright vermilion tint. Gmelin 

 recommends its transplantation and the appli' 

 cation of its colouring properties to objects of 

 more importance. The reddish bro^vn substance 

 contained in this plant, is now much used by 

 dyers ; and one species of the viper's bugloss, 

 which has been naturalized in Brazil, is used, 

 like our wild borage, to give coolness to liquids 

 in which its leaves are steeped. Some species 

 were used by the Romans for dyeing. 



"We have more than twenty species of bu- 

 gloss in gardens. Blue is the prevailing colour 

 of their flowers, but some which have reached 

 us from the Cape of Good Hope, the Canary 

 and Madeira islands, have red or white blos- 

 soms. 



