228 LABIATJE. 



The Wild Basil (Clinopodium vulgare), is tlie one British 

 plant of its family. It has distant whorls of bright crimson 

 flowers, with pairs of soft, unserrated leaves at each whorl. It 

 was formerly planted upon graves, and is associated with sad- 

 ness and bereavement, It forms a leading feature in Boccac- 

 cio's pretty story of "Isabella," as translated into verse by 

 Keats. The heroine buried the head of her murdered lover 



" And covered it with mould, and o'er it set 

 Sweet Basil, which her tears kept ever wet." 



The Wild Balm (Melittis melissophyllum), is a beautiful 

 plant, perhaps the most showy of the tribe. It grows about a 

 foot high, with lance-shaped, serrated leaves, and a hairy stem. 

 From the axils of each pair of the upper leaves spring two 

 handsome blossoms ; the corolla is sulphur-coloured or pinkish, 

 and there is one or more large blotches of violet on the under 

 lip. My specimen was sent me from JN"ewton-le-Willows, in 

 Yorkshire. I have it also from the neighbourhood of Lyn- 

 niouth, in Devon, and Fanny describes it as growing abun- 

 dantly about woods in Cornwall. 



The Prunella or Self-heal (Prunella vulgaris), is a very com- 

 mon plant, flowering by roadsides and pasture fields. The 

 flowers are arranged in close whorls, forming a spike ; but as 

 only one or two flowers in the crowded spike are ever open at 

 once, the plant appears to be either only just coming into 

 bloom, or very nearly over. The leaves are smooth, ovate, and 

 entire ; the flowers bright blue, and the bracts mingled among 

 them have a crimson tinge. The plant is low in stature. 



The Greater Skullcap (Scutellaria galericulata), I got near 

 Eeading, from a ditch close to the railway. 



I saw the Arrowhead blooming in that ditch from the 

 window of a railway carriage, and, as we had an hour to 

 wait at Eeading, I ran back and got the plant. The Greater 

 Scullcap grew beside it on the bank. It height is from a foot 

 to a foot and a half; its has narrow, lance-shaped leaves, each 

 pair on the upper stems having two pretty lilac flowers between 



