HAKDWICKB'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



^0 



"Braune." Lyte (1578) says, "It is good to 

 wassh the mouth often with the decoction of 

 Prunell, against the ulcers of the mouth, and it is 

 also a soueraigne remedie against that disease 

 whiche the Brabanders do name den Bruynen, 

 that is, whan the tongue is inflamed, and waxeth 

 blacke, and is much swollen, so that the generall 

 remedies haue gone before." A combination of 

 nitre and sulphur, called " Sal Prunelle," is often 

 used by old-fashioned people as a remedy for a 

 sore throat. It is dissolved in the mouth gradually, 

 and, I believe, has frequently a very good effect. 

 The name, doubtless, has some connection with 

 that of the plant, either because curing the same 

 disorder, or from similarity of effect, or' the drug 

 may, possibly, have been sold as an extract of 

 prunella. 



The scientific name is not classical Latin. It is 

 the old German name Latinized into Bniiiclla, and 

 softened into Prunella. The old herbalists give 

 both forms as the Latin name of the plant. It was 

 also called in Latin Cotisolida media, and was classed 

 with the Bugle {Ajuga reptans), a plant which it 

 somewhat resembles, as Middle Consound. 



I think the name Brunei or Prunell is now quite 

 obsolete, and I have no record of Self-heal being at 

 present in actual use, though it is always given in 

 botanical books as the ordinary English name, and 

 may, possibly, still be known. The name " Self- 

 heal " is found in all the old herbals. It means a 

 plant with which one can cure oneself. Dr. Prior 

 quotes an old Prench proverb given by Ruellius : 

 " No one wants a surgeon who keeps Prunella." 

 It was considered a specific for wounds. "The 

 decoction of Prunell made with wine or water doth 

 ioyne together and make whole and sounde all 

 wonndes both inwarde and outward as Bugle 

 doth." Sanicula Europcea was also called " Self- 

 heal " for the same reasons. 



Several modern local names, however, point to 

 the use of Prunella as a joiner of wounds. In 

 Yorkshire and in parts of Cheshire it is called All- 

 heal ; around Belfast it is known as Touch-and- 

 heal, a name given in many places to one of the 

 St. John's Worts. In Cheshire it is most generally 

 known as Carpenter-grass'; and it is thought that if 

 a carpenter cuts himself, the leaves will stanch the 

 blood and heal the cut. In Gloucestershire it still 

 retains a name given by all the old herbalists. Car- 

 penter's Herb. One of its Cheshire names is Proud 

 Carpenter. Why such an epithet has been added, 

 or why the name has been so corrupted, I cannot 

 explain -. names very often do get thus capriciously 

 altered, until there is very little left to show their 

 original meaning. It is somewhat remarkable, too, 

 that in Cheshire the word " carpenter " should be 

 retained in the name of the plant, though a worker 

 in wood is seldom or never so called, but is always 

 spoken of as a "joiner." 



Hookeheale and Sicklewort were also old names 

 for Prunella. Lyte and Gerard both give the 

 former, and Gerard the latter name. Dr. Prior 

 thus explains Hookheal, " from its being supposed, 

 on the doctrine of signatures, to heal wounds from 

 a billhook, which its corolla was thought to 

 resemble." He says of Sickletcort, "from the 

 shape of its flowers, which, seen in profile, re- 

 semble a sickle." A hadgiiig-hooh ^ and a sickle, 

 both instruments for cutting corn, certainly 

 resemble each other, and a badging-hook is often 

 used for trimming hedges ; but an ordinary bill- 

 Jiook is very different ; so that the flower could 

 scarcely resemble both a billhook and a sickle. 

 The fact of the plant often growing amongst corn, 

 and its known use as a wound-wort, may have in- 

 duced men to look for its "signature;" still, 

 although the corolla of each flower does curve in 

 the form of a hook, I liardly think the resemblance 

 is sufficiently striking to have been regarded as an 

 indication of its use ; besides which, there are 

 scores of labiate plants in which the resemblance 

 is quite as striking, or more so. I think, most 

 likely, both names simply refer to its use by reapers 

 when cut with a hook or a sickle, and it would 

 generally be at hand for the purpose. 



Gerard also calls it, in the appendix to his 

 Herbal, Pimperucll,— a name then and now gene- 

 rally given to Aiiagallis aroensis, but sometimes to 

 Pimpinella saxifraga, an umbelliferous plant. In 

 the herbals Poterium is Pimpinell, which is derived 

 from the middle-age Latin lipetinella, variously 

 corrupted into pampimtla and pimpinella, and refers 

 to the leaflets of a pinnate leaf. This derivation is 

 correct as regards Pimpinella and Poterium, both 

 of which have pinnate leaves ; but not as regards 

 Anagallis or Prunella. The latter, however, may 

 have been confused with Sanguisorba {Poterium), 

 because both were specifics for stanching blood 

 and healing wounds. 



A Gloucestershire name for Self-heal is Ply- 

 flower, perhaps from a fancied resemblance of its 

 flowers to those insects. 



Johnstone, in his "Botany of the Eastern Borders," 

 calls it Prince's Peathers and Heart-o'-the-Yearth. 

 The first of these names is given in other places to 

 several other plants, and I cannot tell why it is 

 transferred to this, as it does not in the least 

 resemble them ; neither can I explain tlie second 

 name, unless there may be an idea that it is an 

 exhausting weed, taking the best ingredients out 

 of the soil. An Ayrshire name is London Bottles, 

 which may be given as a distinction from the 

 ordinary Blue-bottles {Centaurea cyanus), though 

 there is really no resemblance. 



The last name I have on my list is Pickpocket, 

 which is in use in Essex. This is a sort of generic 

 and very expressive local name given to several 

 agrarian weeds which injure the farmer by taking 



