448 FLORA DOMKSTICA. 



The North American Violets are mostly void of scent, 

 with the exception of the DogVviolet, with which we are 

 also familiar in our own hedges, as a successor to the 

 Sweet-violet. With this exception too, the North Ame- 

 rican Violets best succeed in loam and bog earth, and 

 should be housed in the winter. 



VIPER'S BUGLOSS. 



ECHIUM. 



BORRAGINE;E. PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA, 



This plant has been supposed to cure the bite of the viper : it is also 

 called cat's tail. French, la viperine; 1'herbe aux viperes [viper's 

 wort]. Italian, viperina. 



THE Cretan species is the handsomest of the genus : its 

 flowers are of a red-purple : the plant produces them but 

 once. This kind is a native of the Levant : its stalks are 

 trailing, and about a foot in length. The top of a wall is 

 the best place to sow it ; if in a pot, it must be in a 

 gravelly soil : it should be sown about the middle of 

 October, and in hard frost covered with a little sawdust, 

 straw, or oak-leaves. It will flower in July and August ; 

 and if on a wall, will scatter its own seeds, and so maintain 

 its own continuance. 



The other species must be housed in the winter : they da 

 not produce their flowers till the second year after sowing. 

 They must be sparingly watered, in winter particularly; 

 the stems being succulent. 



The Common Viper's Bugloss (Echium Vulgare) is a 

 splendid flower, of which the colours are deep blue, and 

 bright scarlet ; they are set very closely upon the stalk, in 

 long spikes. On the Surrey bank of the Thames, imme- 

 diately beyond Teddington Lock, it grows in great pro- 



