24:2 



WEEDS AND USEFUL PLANTS. 



panded, naked. Stamens mostly exserted, unequal. Nutlets roughened 



or wrinkled, fixed by a flat base. 



1. E. vulga're, L. Stem tuber- 

 culate-hispid ; leaves linear- 

 lanceolate, hispid ; flowers in 

 lateral secund spikes, dispos- 

 ed in a long narrow raceme. 

 COMMON ECHIUM. Blue- weed. 

 Viper's Bugloss. Blue Devils. 

 Fr. Herbe aux Viperes. Ger. 

 Der Natterkopf. Span. Yer- 

 ba de la Vibora. 



Root biennial. Stem 2-3 feet high, 

 branched above. Radical-leaves 5-8 

 inches long, lanceolate, petiolate ; 

 stem-leaves smaller, linear-lanceolate, 

 acute sessile. Spikes numerous, ax- 

 illary, secuud and at flrst recurved, 

 finally erect. Corolla at first pur- 

 Iplish, finally bright blue, pubescent 

 externally. Al<enes subovoid, angu- 

 lar on the inner side, keeled on the 

 back, a little incurved and acuminate, 

 rough with tubercles of a greyish- 

 brown color. 



Fields and road-sides : introduced. 

 Native of Europe. Fl. June. Fr. 

 August. 



Obs. This showy but vile 

 weed, has become extensively 

 naturalized in some portions 

 of our country, and is a sad 

 pest wherever it establishes 

 itself. I have seen it in con- 

 siderable quantities in the 

 State of Maryland, and of late 

 years it has become abundant 

 in New York though I think 

 it is yet rare in Pennsylvania. 

 Prof. A. GKAY informs us (Silliman's Journal, Vol. 42, p. 13), that, in 

 the valley of the Shenandoah, Virginia, " for the distance of more than 

 a hundred miles, it has taken complete possession, even of many cultivat- 

 ed fields." A veteran editor of a newspaper in the " Old Dominion," 

 has long been noted for harping on the Ovidian phrase" Principiis 

 obsta,' i. e. meet and resist beginnings or nip the first buddings of evil. 

 If he had taught his agricultural fellow-citizens to apply his favorite 

 maxim, practically to this plant, he would "have done the State some 

 service :" and every farmer would do well to bear that maxim in mind, 



154= 



FIG. 154. Flowering summit of Viper's Bugloss (Echium vulgare). 



