April 14, 2026
VIPER’S BUGLOSS
The Echium vulgare, or Viper’s Bugloss, is one of the handsomest of English wild flowers. Its seed resembling the head of the viper, it was supposed on the doctrine of signatures to cure the bite of that reptile: whilst its spotted stem indicated to the old herbalists and simplers that the plant was specially created to counteract the poison of speckled vipers and snakes. Dioscorides affirmed that anyone who had taken the herb before being bitten would not be hurt by the poison of any serpent. The French call it la Vipérine, and the Italians Viperina.
In England it is also known as Snake’s Bugloss and Cat’s Tail.
According to astrologers, the Viper’s Bugloss is a herb of the Sun.