Echium
(from Echion, the old Greek name given to this plant by Dioscorides). Viper's Bugloss. ORD. Boragineoe. A genus of about twenty species (chiefly South European and Oriental) of very handsome rough, shrubby or herbaceous, hardy or greenhouse plants. Flowers in spiked or panicled racemes, recurved at top. Leaves alternate. All the species of this large genus are of very easy culture in good ordinary garden soil. Cuttings of the shrubby sorts will root in sandy soil, under a hand glass, but they are more readily increased by layers. The herbaceous species are easily raised from seeds. The following are nearly all those which are in cultivation. About fifty forms have been described as species; a careful study of the genus would probably reduce the number to about half.
E. albicans (whitish). fl., corolla at first rosy colour, ultimately becoming violet, nearly 1in. in length; racemes branching, recurved at the ends. l. forming a dense tuft, linear-lanceolate, tapering at the base. h. 6in. to 18in. Spain. Plant clothed with hoary, appressed, bristly hairs. Hardy perennial. (G. C. n. s., xv. 301.) E. candicans (whitish). fl., corolla blue, pilose at top outside; panicles terminal, conical; spikelets pedunculate, simple. May. l. lanceolate, clothed with silky, silvery, canescent down. Stem branched. h. 2ft. to 4ft. Madeira, 1777. Greenhouse biennial.
E. creticum (Cretan). fl., corolla reddish-violet, irregular; spikelets simple, axillary, and terminal, many-flowered. July,l. oblong-lanceolate, hispid. Stem herbaceous, diffuse, very hispid, branched at the base. h. 6in. to 18in. South Europe, 1683. Hardy annual. (B. M. 1934.) E. fastuosum (proud). fl., corolla deep blue, campanulate; panicle thyrsoid, ovate, large, dense; spikelets pedunculate, simple. April to August. l. oblong-lanceolate, acuminated, veiny, beset with soft white hairs, ciliated. Stem branched, rather villous above. h. 2ft. to 4ft. Canary Islands, 1779. Green-house evergreen.(R. H. 1876, 10.) E. vulgare (common). fl., corolla fine purple in bud, afterwards violet-blue, downy outside; racemes terminal, spike-formed, long; spikelets spreading, simple. Stem usually simple, tubercled. h. 2ft. to 4ft. Europe (Britain). Biennial. (Sy. En. B. 1095.)