LABIATE TEIBE 59 



of the Italians, the Alhohaca silvesfrc of the Spaniards, and is termed by the 

 Russians BlosrJn'nza. It is the C. dinopodium of Benthani. 



IS. Bastard Balm {MeUttis). 



Bastard Balm {M. mplksophjllum). — Leaves oblong, egg-shaped, or 

 somewhat heart-shaped, serrated ; upper lip of the calyx with 2 or 3 teeth ; 

 perennial. This is a very handsome but rare plant, found in woods in the 

 south of England, as well as in Wales and Worcester. It is about a foot 

 high, having very large leaves ; and in June and July it bears either showy 

 purple flowers with a creamy margin, or cream-white, blotched in diff'erent 

 ways with purple. It has while fresh a disagreeable odour, but when dried 

 its scent is pleasant, like that of new-made hay. The true balm belongs to 

 another genus, and is the MeJixm officiiialig. The latter plant is sometimes 

 included in the British Flora, as it is naturalized in the south of this kingdom. 

 It has egg-shaped leaves, with rounded serratures, paler on their under sur- 

 faces ; the white flowers spotted with rose grow in axillary one-sided whorls. 

 It is a native of Southern Europe, and a very old inhabitant of the garden. 

 Chaucer says, when referring to some delicious odour — 



" As men a pot-full of Baume held 

 Emong a basket-full of roses." 



19. Self-heal (Pnindla). 



Common Self-heal (P. mdgdris). — Leaves stalked, oblong egg-shaped, 

 blunt, upper lip nearly entire, or slightly toothed ; upper lip of the calyx 

 with short teeth, cut suddenly off, and tipped with a spine ; flowers in whorls, 

 forming a crowded spike ; perennial. The Prunella, or Brunella, as our 

 fathers called it, is very common on banks, and in moist or barren pastures. 

 Its dense short spikes of flowers are usually of a deep purple colour, though 

 we have seen them of a pale lilac, and even white tint. The lower lip of 

 the corolla has a toothed margin, and at the base of the spike are two leaves, 

 and two slender bracts are beneath each whorl, which, as well as the calyxes, 

 are of deep purple. Like most of our labiate plants, it is in flower during 

 July and August. Its old names of Carpenter's Herb, Sickle-wort, and 

 Hookweed, as well as that by which it is still called, allude to its uses as a 

 vulnerary ; and many cases are recorded by old herbalists in which wounds 

 inflicted by sickles, scythes, and other sharp instrument!?, were healed by its 

 use. As it possesses some astringency, it was probably useful in such cases. 

 The plant grows by waysides in most European countries. Sir Charles 

 Lyell saw it in New England, where doubtless it had been introduced from 

 Europe ; and Sir Joseph Hooker saw it on the mountains of the Himalaya. 

 Linnajus softened down the old name of Brunella to its modern appellation, 

 but the former word is said to have been derived from the German hiUinr, 

 the quinsy, from its supposed uses in that complaint. Its modern name is 

 pretty nearly alike in all the countries of Eiu^ope. The French term it 

 Bnmelle ; the Germans, PruneUe ; the Dutch, Bniinelh ; the Italians Brunella ; 

 and the Spaniards, Brunela. 



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