342 



BORAGINACEAE (BORAGE FAMILY) 



VIPER'S BUGLOSS 

 Echium vulgare, L. 



Other English names: Blueweed, Blue Devil, Blue Thistle, Viper's 



Herb, Snake Flower. 



Introduced. Biennial. Propagates by seeds. 

 Time of bloom: June to September. 

 Seed-time: August to November. 

 Range: New Brunswick to Ontario and Nebraska, southward to 



Georgia. 

 Habitat: Fields, meadows, pastures, waste places. 



In Australia this weed is known as "Paterson's Curse," from 

 the settler who unwittingly introduced it, and it is "proclaimed" 

 by the state, to the end that all men's 

 hands may be turned against it. (Fig. 237.) 

 First-year leaves tufted, linear oblong to 

 lance-shaped, three to six inches long, 

 entire, bristly hairy on both sides, crown- 

 ing a thick, dark taproot which bores into 

 the soil often to the depth of more than 

 a foot. Flowering stalks appear in the 

 second season, one to two feet high, erect, 

 slender, bristly, the bristles springing from 

 fine, red tubercles which speck the stem; 

 on the leaves these prominent specks are 

 pale green ; when near maturity the bristly 

 hairs harden into prickles, which come away 

 as readily as cactus spines, making the 

 weed a most vicious thing to handle. 

 Flower-spike compound, formed of many 

 small, one-sided, curving spikelets springing 

 from the upper axils ; calyx five-toothed, 

 bristly; corolla a half-inch or more long, 

 irregular funnel-form, unequally five-lobed, 

 pink in the bud, violet-blue when fully 

 open, withering to a deep purple ; the five 

 stamens are unequal, the longer ones exserted and all have red 

 anthers. Nutlets small, three-angled, wrinkled, of very long 

 vitality, and too often an impurity among other seeds. 



.per's 



FIG. 237. V 

 Bugloss (Echium vulgare) . 



x J. 



