218 
BRITISH WILD FLOWERS. 
1.—THE WILD SUCCORY. (Cichorium Intybus, Lin .) 
Engravings. —Eng. Bot., t. 539 ; 2nd ed., t. 1106 ; and onr fig. 9, in PI. 42. 
Specific Character. —Heads in pairs, each nearly sessile. Leaves runcinate. ( Lindley.) 
Description, &c. —This very beautiful plant is found abundantly in sandy and chalky soils in different 
parts of England. Its flowers are generally of a most brilliant blue, but they are sometimes of a much paler 
tint, and sometimes quite white. The leaves are very good in salad; they also make an excellent fodder for 
cows and horses ; and the roots are either used as a substitute for coffee, or to mix with coffee to improve its 
flavour. The plant is a perennial, and it flowers in July and August. 
CHAPTER XLIX. 
THE BORAGE FAMILY. (BoRAGiNEiE, Juss.) 
Character of the Order. —Calyx persistent, with four or five 
divisions. Corolla liypogynous, monopetalous, generally regular, five- 
cleft, sometimes four-cleft; with an imbricate aestivation. Stamens 
inserted upon the petals, equal to the number of lobes of the corolla, 
and alternate with them, seldom in greater number. Ovarium four- 
parted, four-seeded ; ovula attached to the lowest point of the cavity ; 
style simple; stigma simple or bifid. Nuts four, distinct. Seed 
separable from the pericarpium, destitute of albumen. Embryo with 
a superior radicle, and flat cotyledons parallel with the axis.—Herba¬ 
ceous plants or shrubs. Stems round. Leaves alternate, covered 
with asperities, consisting of hairs proceeding from an indurated 
enlarged base. Flowers in one-sided spikes or racemes. (Lindley.) 
Description, &c. —The plants belonging to this order are easily distinguished by botanists by their seed- 
vessels, which consist of four distinct nuts ; and by amateurs by the colour of their flowers, which generally 
contain a bright blue and a bright pink in the same flower. The order is not a very extensive one, but it 
contains a good many well-known British plants. All the genera are in the Linmean class and order Pentandria 
Monogynia, each flower having five stamens and a single style. 
GENUS I. 
THE VIPER’S-BUGLOSS. (Echium, Lin.) 
Lin. Syst. PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
Generic Character _Calyx five-parted. Corolla with a short tube ; limb large, campanulate, obliquely five-lobed ; segments unequal; 
the two upper largest, the lowest small, acute, and reflexed. Nuts covered with little tubercles. (Dec.) 
Description, &c. —There is only one British species, viz. the common Yiper’s Bugloss ( E. vulgare ), and 
this plant is a striking illustration of the peculiarity of the colours of the order, as some of its flowers are of a 
bright blue, others as bright and decided a pink, and others a clear purple. If this plant were not a common 
weed, it would be highly valued for its beauty ; but it is so common in some places, particularly in Cambridge¬ 
shire and Norfolk, as to be regarded only as a troublesome weed. The name of Echium is derived from the 
Greek word for a viper; and both it and the English appellation, allude to the belief that was formerly 
entertained, that this plant was a sure antidote to the poisonous bite of a viper. The plant is a biennial, and 
it flowers in June and July. 
