LABI AT AE (MINT FAMILY) 



353 



lawn-mower and sometimes taking complete possession of the 



sward. It adapts itself to circumstances, fruiting when not more 



than two inches high or sometimes attaining to more than a foot, 



the square, grooved stem sometimes erect or ascending, or often 



prostrate. Leaves long ovate, approaching to lance-shaped, obtuse, 



entire or with shallow scalloped edges, usually smooth or sometimes 



sparsely hairy, narrowing to short petioles. Flowers in densely 



packed terminal and axillary spikes, 



clustered in threes in the axils of mem- 



branaceous, veined, and hairy bracts ; 



the blossoms are in various shades of 



purple, some very deep in color, others 



so pale as to be nearly white; corolla 



tubular, with a lengthened upper lip 



which is arched into a hood, into which 



the longer of the two pairs of stamens 



ascend ; the lower lip three-lobed and 



spreading ; calyx also two-lipped, closed 



in fruit, the upper lip truncate or with 



three short teeth, the lower one two- 



cleft and pointed. Seeds four small, 



ovoid nutlets, which are ripening and 



dropping all summer. (Fig. 244.) 



Means of control 



T c u i i i -ii j u F IG - 244. Heal-all (Pru- 



In fields the weed may be killed by neHa vu ig ar is) f x i. 



frequent hoe-cutting. While treating 



a border with Iron sulfate in order to kill Chickweed, the 

 writer discovered that the Heal-all succumbed quite as readily 

 to its blight, the leaves blackening and falling off, while the buds 

 ceased to grow and in a few days rotted ; without leaf-growth the 

 roots cannot survive, and therefore Prunella can be driven from the 

 lawns by repeated sprayings without injury to the grass. The 

 solution used was somewhat strong about eight per cent but 

 grasses readily recover from much stronger " doses " of this 

 chemical ; and the beauty of the sward can afford to endure 

 temporary injury for the sake of relief from such company. 

 2 A 



