VIPER'S BUGLOSS.

Description

Echium Vulgare. Viper's Bugloss has many long rough leaves lying on the ground, from which rise up hard round stalks, very rough, as if set with prickles or hairs, on which are set similar prickly green leaves, somewhat narrow : the middle rib being white. The flowers stand at the top of the stalk, branched forth in many long spiked leaves of flowers, turning like the turnsole. The flowers are large of a beautiful blue with a red stamen in the middle. After the flowers are fallen, the seeds when ripe are blackish, shaped like the head of a viper. The root is large, blackish, and woody. It grows about pathways, on ditch-banks, and about old walls.

USES: The leaves are used; those growing from the root are the best. An infusion of them is cordial, and operates by sweat. It is good in fevers, cures the headache, and all nervous complaints. It relieves inflammatory pains, the seed being decocted in wine. This decoction comforts the heart, and drives away melancholy. It is a sweetener of the blood. It is said to be an expellant of poison, and venom, and to cure the bite of a viper; hence its name.