234 ITS MEDICINAL PROPERTIES. 



this same characteristic is found in many individuals of the 

 common species. The dentiform appendage which the two 

 longest stamens exhibit at the top of their filaments is also 

 an uncertain feature ; you must have recourse to your magni- 

 fying-glass to see if this appendage is obtuse and very short, 

 as in the large-flowered prunella, or sharp, as in the common 

 species. As for the size of the corolla, it is, in fact, very 

 marked ; but, as a characteristic, is wholly insufficient. The 

 creation of the varieties Pinnatifida, Laciniifolia, and Integrifolia 

 is no better justified. For it is no rare thing to see on the same 

 stalk, at different heights, pinnatifid, whole, and laciniate leaves. 



The prunella is remarkable for the long hairs which garnish 

 the calyx, and, principally, the edges of the bracts. Examined 

 in the microscope, they assume the form of tiny, pointed 

 bamboos ; the knots bulge out a little, and the intervals are 

 punctuated. 



The botanists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries 

 are by no means sparing in their eulogiums on the marvellous 

 virtues of our flower, which, by the way, Bock (Tragus) was 

 the first to figure with tolerable accuracy.* 



Tournefort thus dwells upon its medicinal properties : 



" It forms an ingredient in arquebusade water and vul- 

 nerary potions. It is ordered in possets and broths, in 

 apozemes for the spitting of blood, dysentery, haemorrhages, 

 and the like. It has also been used for ulcers in the mouth, 

 and a remedy against headaches ; after being mixed with rose- 

 oil and vinegar, the temples were bathed with it." 



* Tragus, " Historia Stirpium," p. 310 (ed. 1552). 



