320 Borraginaceea— Echium. 
2. ECHIUM. 
Tall herbaceous or suffruticose plants, usually clothed with 
rough hairs having a thickened base. Leaves entire. Flowers 
blue, violet, red or white, in spiked or racemose panicles. 
Calyx 5-lobed. Corolla cylindrical or funnel-shaped, with a 
dilated naked throat and an unequally 5-lobed limb. Stamens 
exserted; anthers free. Nuts 4, rough, inserted on the flat 
receptacle by a flat base. There are about fifty species, chiefly 
from the Mediterranean countries and South Africa. The generic 
name is from éyes, a viper, from the resemblance, it is said, of 
the seeds or nuts of some species to a viper’s head. The 
Viper’s Bugloss, #. vulydre, is a handsome indigenous species 
with reddish purple, wtimately blue, or rarely white flowers. 
It grows from 1 to 3 feet high, and is of annual or biennial 
duration. 
&. violicewm is an allied species with long simple spikes of 
remarkably bright violet-blue flowers. EZ. Créticwm is a dwarfer 
annual plant with red flowers; and EL. pomponium a tall 
biennial with flesh-coloured flowers. 
Borrago officiialis, Borage, occasionally seen in gardens and 
waste places, is a distinct plant with broad sinuate leaves and 
large blue flowers with conspicuous black anthers. The flowers 
are borne in a loose cyme, and remarkable for the rotate deeply- 
lobed corolla having broad notched scales at the mouth of the 
tube. 
3. SYMPHYTUM. 
Perennial scabrid herbs with thick fleshy roots. Radical 
leaves stalked, cauline sessile or decurrent. Flowers white, red, 
purple, blue or yellow, in terminal bracteate cymes. Calyx 5- 
lobed or -toothed. Corolla tubular, inflated, shortly 5-toothed, 
the throat closed by ciliated scales. Stamens 5, included. 
Nuts 4,smooth. There are about fifteen species in Europe and 
West Asia. The name is said to be an altered form of a Greek 
word signifying to cement, in allusion to the healing properties 
of some species. S. officinale, Comfrey, a British species, is a 
tall herb with ample foliage and yellow or purplish flowers. 
This species was formerly employed in domestic medicine. 
1. S. Bohémicum.—This is scarcely distinguishable from the 
common Comfrey, except in its bright reddish purple flowers, 
which appear in Summer. 
2. 8. aspérrimum. —A tall-growing species, remarkable for 
