TVEEDS AXD USEFUL PLAXTS. 



paneled, naked. Sta?nens mostly exserted, nneqnal. 

 or Tvrinkled, fixed bv a flat base'. 



Nutlets rougliened 



1. E. vulga're, L. Stem tuber- 

 culate-hispid ; leayes linear- 

 lanceolate, hispid ; flowers in 

 lateral secund spikes, dispos- 

 ed in a long narrow raceme. 

 CoiiMOx EcHiuM. Blue-weed. 

 Yiper's Bugloss. Blue Devils. 

 Fr. Herbe aux Viperes. Ger. 

 Der Natterkopf. Span. Yer- 

 ba de la Yibora. 



Boot biennial. St-em 2-3 feet high, 

 branched above. Radical-leaves 5 - S 

 inches long, lanceolate, pctiolate ; 

 stem-leaves smaller, hnear-lanceolate, 

 acute sessile. Spikes numerous, ax- 

 illary, secund and at first recurved, 

 finally erect. Corolla at first pur- 

 Iplish, finally bright blue, pubescent 

 externally. AJcenes subovoid, angu- 

 lar on the inner side, keeled on the 

 back, a little incurved and acumiuate, 

 rough -with tubercles of a greyish- 

 brown color. 



Fields and road-sides : introduced. 

 Native of Europe. Fl. June. Ft: 

 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 ns (SiUimmrs fournal. Vol. 42, p. 13), that in 

 the valley of the Shenandoah, Yirginia, " 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 0 vidian phrase — " Frmcipiifi 

 obsta,' — i. e. meet and resist beginnings — or 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 maxkn in mind, 



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



