1913] Fernald,— Indigenous Varieties of Prunella vulgaris 181 
Europa et Asia rarior," while the ovate- or oblong-leaved “8 vulgaris ” 
was said to be “in Europa et Asia vulgatissima....in America boreali 
rarior.” ! In Hooker's Flora Boreali-Americana, in 1838, true P. 
vulgaris was recognized only from eastern Canada and Newfoundland, 
while the plants of the Northwest were treated as “8. major, foliis 
angustioribus. P. Pennsylvanica.”? 
The preceding citations and quotations are sufficient to show that 
the earlier students of our flora studied Prunella; but in recent dis- 
cussions of the North American flora few mentions seem to occur of 
the fact that we have several well marked variations, one perhaps 
only introduced, the others indigenous. In the several editions of 
Gray's Manual, Prunella (or Brunella) vulgaris has been treated as 
purely indigenous, though in the Synoptical Flora Gray implied that 
it is introduced as well as native, saying "evidently indigenous in 
some of the cooler districts." ? By Britton & Brown it is said to be 
* Naturalized from Europe. Native also of Asia. Possibly native 
in northern British America"; * while in Britton's Manual it is said to 
be merely “Nat. from Europe." ? To those who know the flora of 
the northern States and Canada in the field, however, there is no 
question of the indigenous character of the narrow-leaved variations 
of P. vulgaris; and Professor John Macoun, although not indicating 
the differences between the varieties, was expressing a widely felt 
conviction when he wrote: "It is probable there are two forms in 
the east where there may be an introduced one, but the western and 
Ontario form is certainly indigenous." * 
In the commonest North American variety of Prunella vulgaris 
(Barton's P. pennsylvanica B lanceolata) as in the true P. vulgaris 
the bracts are copiously bristly-ciliate with long white hairs; but in 
the Northwest, from Vancouver Island to northern California and 
Wyoming, there are found other varieties, with the margins of the 
bracts quite smooth or at most with sparse and comparatively short 
ciliation. These varieties appear to have been unrecognized here- 
tofore; as does a very beautiful plant of the Aleutian Islands with the 
ciliate bracts and the calyx deep purple, the bracts almost lanate with 
white tomentum. 
1 Benth. Lab. Gen. et Sp. 417, 418 (1834). 
? Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. ii. 114 (1838). 
3 Gray, Syn. FI. ii. pt. 1, 382 (1878). 
4 Britton & Brown, Ill. Fl. iii. 88 (1898). 
5 Britton, Man. 788 (1901). 
6 Macoun, Cat. Can. Pl. i. 389 (1884). 
