SELF-HEAL. 



Prunella vulgarls. Nat. Ord., Labicda, 



EAV of those who have sufficient 

 interest in our wild flowers to 

 take up our book at all will find 

 the self-heal a plant unfamiliar 

 to them, for its heads of purple 

 . flowers spring 1 up amidst the long- 

 grass in profusion in almost any 

 piece of meadow-land and pasturage. 

 The plant is an annual, and every 

 year there is a bountiful dotting 

 over of rich violet in the long waving 

 grass of the hay-field. The self-heal 

 is ordinarily a sign of poor land, 

 and grows most freely in moist 

 situations, in what one hears farmers call a "cold" 

 soil. Its blossoms should generally be looked for in 

 June and July, but on hedge-banks and other situations 

 where the mower's scythe does not cut short its career 

 it may at times be found flowering throughout August. 

 The root of the self-heal is exceedingly fibrous. The stems 

 creep a good deal, and send down roots from their lower 

 joints, and the flower-branches ascend to a height varying 

 from a few inches to a foot or more. In open and exposed 

 situations the plant is diminutive, while in more sheltered 

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