23 



HARDWICKE'S S C 1 E N C E-GOSSIP. 



trations are numerous, and if tliey are not of such 

 a tiigli iiiiisb, they are telling. The book was 

 origiually given as a course of nine lectures on 

 geology, and is specially adapted for the use of 

 schools and junior students. We are sorry, how- 

 ever, (hat in his classification of the animal king- 

 dom, Mr. Ward has placed the Graptolites among 

 the Polyzoa. This is a mistake frequently made, but 

 their common place is among the Hydrozoa, as they 

 were undoubtedly allied to our modern sertularians, 

 the chief difference being that they were free, 

 instead of fixed. With this mistake, which we 

 doubt not Mr. Ward will correct in a future 

 edition, we have nothing but unqualified praise to 

 bestow upon his work. Perhaps it would have 

 been better had it stood alone, and without ^the 

 " Geological Dream " being appended to it. 



SELF-HEAL. 



{Prutiella vulgaris.) 



OOME account of this plant, including the origin 

 ^ of one of its English names, " Self-heal," was 

 asked for in the December number of Science- 

 Gossip. As it has a variety of English names 

 besides the above, I think a short history of the 

 origin and meaning of them all will, perhaps, be 

 interesting. First, however, as to the plant itself. 

 The genus Pncnella belongs to the natural order 

 Lahiatce. It consists of herbaceous plants only, 

 whicli are "distinguished by a two-lipped calyx, 

 the upper lip truncate, three-toothed, the lower 

 bifid ; stamens ascending ; style bifid." 



We have only one native species. Prunella vul- 

 garis, a very pretty though exceedingly common 

 plant, found in rather damp and barren pastures, 

 and very generally by the roadside ; and in some 

 -counties, as, for instance, in Cheshire, when an old 

 clay pasture is broken up for a crop of oats, the 

 i*runella is often so abundant as to be, in some 

 degree, detrimental to the corn, — a circumstance 

 which has given rise to a name that will be men- 

 tioned hereafter. The plant grows five or six 

 inches high, sending shoots out in all directions, 

 which trail on the ground and take root at the 

 Joints, so that it very soon spreads considerably, 

 and clings so tenaciously to the soil, that it is very 



■ di£B.cult to weed it up without leaving a portion 

 behind : our Cheshire labourers would say, " It's 



. as ill as scutch." The whole plant is hairy, and it 



■ sends up many spiked heads of purple flowers, with a 

 vpair of leaves at the base of each spike. The plant is 

 not altogether destitute of beauty, even when out 

 of flower ; for the calyx is persistent and becomes 

 rather membranous, and when the flowers are over, 

 the heads of dry calyces stand up like little brown 

 turrets. I have always had an idea that our wild 

 Prunella would be worth cultivating, and Ij,'sug- 



gested it in Science-Gossip a year or two ago ; 

 but I have not experimented upon it myself. Still 

 it varies in colour from dark purple to light greyish- 

 blue, and occasionally even to mauve and white : it 

 flowers continuously from July to September; and I 

 have little doubt it could be very much improved by 

 cultivation, like most other things. In one of the 

 early volumes of Curtis' s Botanical Magazine, pi. 337, 

 is figured Prunella grandiflora, which is remarkably 

 pretty, and which some authors have thought to be 

 merely a variety of our P. vulgaris. It suggests, 

 at any rate, what cultivation might, perchance, do 

 for our own wild species. 



Self-heal {Prunella vulgaris). 



The old German and Dutch names of the plant 

 were Brunellen and Bruynelle ; in English, Brunei 

 and Prunell, and in French, Prunelle, which, of 

 course, were adopted from the German. The name 

 arose from the use of the plant in curing the 

 quinsy, or some other throat complaint. One of 

 the modern German names of the quinsy is 



