2i3 



WEEDS AXD 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, his^^id ; flowers in 

 lateral secuud spikes, dispos- 

 ed in a long narrow raceme. 

 Common Echium. Blue-weed. 

 Viper's Bugioss. 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 ; 

 slcm-leaves smaller, linear-lanceolate, 

 acute sessile. Spikes numerous, ax- 

 illary, secund and at first recurved, 

 finally erect. Corolla at first pur- 

 Iplish, finally bright blue, pubescent 

 externally. A]ce7ies 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. Gray informs us (Silliman's Journal, Vol. 42, p. 13j, 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 Ovidiau phrase — " Principiis 

 obsta,' — i. e. meet and resist beginnings — cr 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, 



Fig. 154. Flowering summit of Viper's Bugioss (Echium vulgare). 



