HOUND'S-TONGUE.— (7^;/oy^.^5^^;;^ 



officinale. 



class Pentaxdria. Order Moxogynia. Nat. Orel. Bora- 

 GixE^.— Borage Tribe. 



Any one who has looked upon this plant, at 

 once distinguishes it from all others by the 

 lurid purplish red hue of the blossom. Several 

 of our wild tio-vvers have tints ^yhich might be 

 called purplish-red, but not one is of the same 

 hue as this. Though not among our com- 

 monest flowers, yet it is abundant on some of 

 the waste places and road- sides of our islands, 

 blossoming in June and July. The whole plant 

 is soft and downy, of a dull green, and disagree- 

 able odour, like that of mice. It was formerly 

 used in medicine, and its effects are said to be 

 narcotic An instance is related in the "Hist. 

 Oxon./' in which the leaves of this plant, boiled 

 by mistake for Comfrey, disturbed the health of 

 a whole household, and proved fatal to some of 

 its members. Cattle in general refuse to eat 

 it, but the goat, which can with impunity feed 

 upon the Deadly Nightshade and the Tobacco, 

 is said sometimes to crop its foliage. Nor is 

 the plant useless to the insect world, some 

 of them adopting it as their especial food, 



