MINT FAMILY. Labiatae. 



Purple 



Spring, summer, 



autumn 



Across the 



continent 



There are several kinds of Prunella 

 Widdy distributed, but this is the only one 

 common in this country and is probably 

 not native. It is abundant in dampish 

 places, in the far West often staying green 

 all winter, a perennial, sometimes hairy, 

 from two inches to over a foot high. The 

 leaves, often obscurely toothed, have leaf -stalks and the 

 small flowers are crowded in a series of whorls, with pur- 

 plish bracts and forming a spike or head. The calyx is two- 

 lipped, with five teeth and often purplish, and the corolla is 

 purple, pink, or occasionally white, with an arched upper 

 lip, a spreading, three-lobed lower lip, and four stamens, I 

 under the upper lip of the corolla, the lower pair longer, j 

 This is usually not pretty, but in favorable situations in 

 the West is often handsome, with brighter-colored, larger j 

 flowers. The name, often spelled Brunella, is said to 

 be derived from an old German word for an affection of the 

 throat, which this plant was supposed to cure. There is a I 

 picture in Mr. Mathevs' Field Book. 



There are many kinds of Stachys, widely distributed; I 

 herbs, often hairy, with a disagreeable smell ; the calyx with 

 five, nearly equal teeth ; the corolla with a narrow tube, the 

 upper lip erect, the lower lip spreading and three-lobed, the 

 middle lobe longest; the stamens four, in pairs, usually 

 under the upper lip of the corolla. 



This is a handsome plant, with a stout, 

 rough, hairy stem, over two feet tall, and 

 very bright green leaves, which are thin in 

 texture but velvety. The flowers are in 

 whorls, making a large cluster, and have a 

 purplish calyx, smooth or with a few stiff hairs, and a 

 corolla about an inch long, deep pink or magenta, some- 

 times spotted with white inside. Though the flowers 

 rather crude in color, they contrast finely with the bright 

 green foliage. S. coccinea is a very handsome kind, wil 

 a tubular scarlet corolla, and grows in the mountaii 

 canyons of Arizona. 



Hedge Nettle 

 Stbchys cili&ta 

 Magenta 

 Spring, summer 

 Northwest 



444 



