VIPER'S BUGLOSS (Echium, vulgare), a hairy herb of the borage family (Boraginaceae), indigenous to Europe, including Great Britain, and western Asia. The flowers are brilliant blue when expanded, but the buds are reddish. Viper's bugloss, called also blue-weed, has become widely naturalized in the United States and Canada, from Nova Scotia to Ontario and Nebraska and southward to North Carolina; in some sections it is a troublesome weed. It prefers dry soil. The genus Echium con
tains about 3o species, all found in Europe.