The Viper's Bugloss 



insect alights among its own flower's stamens. 

 Hence there is always cross-fertilisation. 



As for insect visitors, the Viper's Bugloss attracts 

 a whole crowd of them ; one observer patiently 

 counted no fewer than a hundred different sorts. 

 Bees are particular favourites, while the Humming 

 Bird Hawk Moth in favoured situations often 

 pauses above it and drinks its fill. Some observers 

 say that bees and butterflies are apt to get their 

 dehcate wings torn by the rough hairs on this plant. 

 It is also said that there are two different kinds of 

 bees whose entire food consists of its pollen. 



The fruit eventually forms as four dry, blackish 

 nutlets, and some have seen in their shape the 

 suggestion of a snake's head and hence, they assert, 

 the plant gets its name of Viper's Bugloss, also its 

 botanical name of Echium, from the Greek {echis, a 

 viper). But Culpepper, who claimed to found all 

 his assertions upon " Dr. Experience," tells us that 

 it is " an especial remedy against the biting of the 

 viper, and all other venomous beasts or serpents, as 



65 "3 



