BOEAGINE^]. 



575 



open mouth to the tube, and an oblique limb, with 5 erect or scarcely 

 spreading, unequal teeth or lobes. Stamens protruding from the tube, 

 and unequal in length. Style 2-cleft. Nuts wrinkled. 



A rather numerous genus in the Canary Islands and western and 

 southern Africa, with a few European and west Asiatic species. 



Stems very erect. Corolla-tube narrow to the top of the calyx. 



Longest stamens longer than the corolla 1. Common E. 



Stems ascending. Corolla-tube broadly campanulate. Longest 



stamens not longer than the lower lobes of* the corolla . 2. Purple 2?. 



1. Common Echium. Echium vulgare, Linn. (Fig. 685.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 181. Vipers Bugloss.) 



Stem erect, 1 to 2 feet high, covered 

 with stiff, spreading, almost prickly 

 hairs. Radical leaves stalked and spread- 

 ing, but often withered away at the time 

 of flowering ; the stem-leaves linear- 

 lanceolate, several inches long. Elowers 

 showy, at first of a reddish-purple, turn- 

 ing afterwards bright blue, in nume- 

 rous one-sided spikes, forming a long 

 terminal panicle. Corolla about 7 lines 

 long, the narrow part of the tube about 

 as long as the calyx, the limb very ob- 

 lique, the longest stamens longer than 

 its lower lobes. 



On roadsides and waste places, through- 

 out Europe and western Asia, except 

 the extreme north. Dispersed over a 

 great part of Britain, abundant in some 

 parts of southern England, but becomes 

 more rare in the north. Fl. all summer. 



Fig. 685. 



2. Purple Echium. Echium violaceum, Linn. (Fig. 686.) 



(Eng. Bot. Suppl. t. 2798.) 



Radical leaves broader and more prominent than in the common JS. ; 

 the stems branched from the base, and more spreading ; the flowering 

 spikes fewer and much longer; the flowers highly coloured, much 

 larger, often an inch long ; the narrow part of the tube very short, 



