

266 PLANTS GROWING IN DRY SOIL. 
and wool-growers is quite amystery. Its bur-like fruit has the 
most wicked propensity for attaching itself to the fleece of 
sheep. Detractors have also likened its odour to that of a nest 
of mice ; but as this is quite a common expression with country 
people and means about as much as telling the sick they look 
as pale as a black dog, there may be a little exaggeration in the 
statement. The resemblance of its leaves to the shape of a 
hound’s tongue is responsible for its name. 
VIPER’S-BUGLOSS. BLUEWEED. (Plate CXXXVI/Z) 
Echium vulgare. 
FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 
Borage. Brilliant blue, with Scentless. Eastern states. June, July. 
pink buds. 
Flowers : small ; thickly clustered on one side of a spike that unfolds as the 
flowers expand. Calyx: five-parted. Corol/a; funnel-form ; of five lobes ; 
three of which are shorter than the others. Stamens: five, unequal ; exserted ; 
red. istil: one; styles,two. Leaves; alternate; lanceolate; very hairy ; 
wavy on the edges. Stem: about two feet high ; rough ; hairy. 
When seen froma distance the blue flowers of the viper’s 
bugloss are hardly credited with having the brilliancy of colour 
that they are found to possess on a closer examination. The 
pink buds and red protruding stamens are an invaluable feature 
of the plant and play their part in lightening the otherwise 
heavy effect of the green. When growing along the roadsides, 
its extreme hairiness attracts an immense amount of dust and 
not until it has been shaken, or washed off, is the prettiness of 
the blossoms seen. ‘The pink buds and uncoiling growth of the 
bunches call to mind the little forget-me-nots of which it isa 
relative. 
GROUND IVY, GILL-OVER-THE-GROUND. 
Glecoma hederacea. 
FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 
Mint. Blue. Leaves fragrant. New England southward. March-May. 
Flowers; axillary; growing singly or in clusters along the flower-stalk. 
Calyx : small; five-toothed. Coro//a; tubular; two-lipped, the upper lip two- 
cleft; the lower one three-cleft with the middle lobe much larger than the 
