BLUE AND PURPLE FLOWERS 
Live-forever {Sedum purpureum). Orpine family. June 
to September. 
A perennial with cool, clammy, fleshy leaves, height about 
two feet. It does not bloom freely, but when it does the cluster 
of purple (one-fourth inch) flowers is quite showy; sepals five, 
petals five, stamens ten. The leaves are grayish-green, oval, 
round-pointed, regularly toothed, made into " purses " by the 
children. Roadsides, especially in damp places. From sedere, 
to sit. 
Nightshade. Bittersweet {Solanum Dulcamara). Night-" 
shade family. May to September. 
A' cHmbing perennial. The flowers (one-half inch broad) are 
purple with yellow centre, in clusters; the corolla five-cleft, 
with two spots at the base of each lobe; stamens (five) promi- 
nent. The upper leaves have two ears at the base. Not to be 
confounded with " Deadly Nightshade" {Atropa belladonna). 
Moist banks. 
This was the Bitter Sweet of early times. Gerarde also 
describes a variety with white fiowers and adds: " Dioscorides 
doth ascribe unto Cydaminius altera, or bitter sweet with white 
floures as I conceive it, the like faculties " [cure of bruises and 
jaundice]. 
Viper's Bugloss. Blue-vj^ed. {Echium vulgare) . Borage 
family. June, July. 
A biennial herb with hairy stem, maximum height three feet. 
The showy blue flowers are in close spikes which uncurl as the 
blossoms appear (scorpioid). The corolla (about three-fourths 
inch long) has a funnel-formed tube, and unequally five-lobed 
border; stamens (five) red, protruding. Stem-leaves pointed, 
without teeth, lance-shaped, without stalks. Roadsides and 
waste places. Not common in eastern Massachusetts, but the 
specimen sketched grew in a vacant lot only a few miles from 
Boston. (From Greek for viper.) 
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