Fig. 1189. Kinds of Wall and Viper's Bugloss (1-4)

The Description.

            1. Lycopsis anglica, or wild Bugloss, so called for that it doth not grow so commonly elsewhere, hath rough and hairy leaves, somewhat lesser than the garden Bugloss: the flowers grow for the most part upon the side of the slender stalk, in fashion hollow like a little bell, whereof some be blue, and others of a purple colour.

            2. There is another kind of Echium that hath rough and hairy leaves likewise, much like unto the former; the stalk is rough, charged full of little branches, which are laden on every side with divers small narrow leaves, sharp pointed, and of a brown colour: among which leaves grow flowers, each flower being composed of one leaf divided into five parts at the top, less, and not so wide open as that of Lycospis, yet of a sad blue or purple colour at the first, but when they are open they show to be of an azure colour, long and hollow, having certain small blue threads in the middle: the seed is small and black, fashioned like the head of a snake or viper: the root is long, and red without.

            3. This hath a crested very rough and hairy stalk some foot high; the leaves are like those of Viper's Bugloss, and covered over with a soft downiness, and grow disorderly upon the stalk, which towards the top is parted into sundry branches, which are divided into divers footstalks carrying small hollow flowers divided by five little gashes at their tops; and they are of a dark purple colour, and contained in rough cups lying hid under the leaves. The seed, as in other plants of this kind, resembles a viper's head: the root is long, as thick as one's little finger, of a dusky colour on the outside, and it lives divers years. This flowers in May, and grows in the dry meadows and hilly grounds of Austria. Clusius calls it Echium pullo flore.

            4. This other being also of Clusius his description hath long and narrow leaves like those of the common Viper's Bugloss, yet a little broader: the stalks rise up four cubit high, firm, crested, and hairy; upon which grow abundance of leaves, shorter and narrower than those below; and amongst these towards the top grow many flowers upon short footstalks which twine themselves round like a scorpion's tail: these flowers are of an elegant red colour, and in shape somewhat like those of the common kind; and such also is the seed, but somewhat less: the root is lasting, long also, hard, woody, and black on the outside, and it sometimes sends up many, but most usually but one stalk. It flowers in May, and was found in Hungary by Clusius, who first set it forth by the name of Echium rubro flore.

The Place.

            Lycopsis groweth upon stone walls, and upon dry barren stony grounds.

            Echium groweth where Alkanet doth grow, in great abundance.

The Time.

            They flourish when the other kinds of Bugloss do flower.

The Names.

            It is called in Greek Echion, and Alkibiadon, of Alcibiades the finder of the virtues thereof: of some it is thought to be Anchusa species, or a kind of Alkanet: in High Dutch, Wild Ochsenzungen: in Spanith, Yerva de la Bivora, or Chupamel: in Italian, Buglossa sylvatica: in French, Buglosse sauvage: in English, Viper's Bugloss, Snake's Bugloss; and of some, Viper's herb, and wild Bugloss the lesser.

The Temperature.

            These herbs are cold and dry of complexion.

The virtues.

            A. The root drunk with wine is good for those that be bitten with serpents, and it keepeth such from being stung as have drunk of it before: the leaves and seeds do the same, as Dioscorides writes. Nicander in his book Of Treacles makes Viper's Bugloss to be one of those plants which cure the biting of serpents, and especially of the viper, and that drive serpents away.

            B. If it be drunk in wine or otherwise it causeth plenty of milk in womens breasts.

            C. The herb chewed, and the juice swallowed down, is a most singular remedy against poison and the bitings of any venomous beast; and the root so chewed and laid upon the sore works the same effect.