From Blue to Purple 



England, where most flowers are deeper hued than with us, the 

 heal-all is rich purple. What is the secret of this flower's success- 

 ful march across three continents ? As usual, the chief reason is 

 to be found in the facility it offers insects to secure food ; and 

 the quantity of fertile seed it is therefore able to ripen as the result 

 of their visits is its reward. Also, its flowering season is unusu- 

 ally long, and it is a tireless bloomer. It is finical in no respect ; 

 its sprawling stems root easily at the joints, and it is very hardy. 



Several species of bumblebees enter the flower, which being 

 set in dense clusters enables them to suck the nectar from each 

 with the minimum loss of time, the smaller bee spending about 

 two seconds to each. After allowing for the fraction of time it 

 takes him to sweep his eyes and the top of his head with his 

 forelegs to free them from the pollen which must inevitably be 

 shaken from the stamen in the arch of the corolla as he dives 

 deeply after the nectar in the bottom of the throat, and to pass the 

 pollen, just as honey-bees do, with the most amazing quickness, 

 from the forelegs to the middle ones, and thence to the hairy 

 "basket" on the hind ones — after making all allowances for such 

 delays, this small worker is able to fertilize all the flowers in the 

 fullest cluster in half a minute 1 When the contents of the baskets 

 of two different species of bumblebees caught on this blossom 

 were examined under the microscope, the pollen in one case proved 

 to be heal-all, with some from the golden-rod, and a few grains of 

 a third kind not identified ; and in the other case, heal-all pollen 

 and a small proportion of some unknown kind. Bees that are 

 evidently out for both nectar and pollen on the same trip have 

 been detected visiting white and yellow flowers on their way 

 from one heal-all cluster to another ; and this fact, together with 

 the presence of more than one kind of pollen in the basket, shows 

 that the generally accepted statement that bees confine them- 

 selves to flowers of one kind or color during a trip is not always 

 according to fact. 



The older name of the plant, Brunella, and the significant one, 

 altered by Linnseus into the softer sound it now bears, is doubt- 

 less derived from the German word, braiine, the quinsy. Quaint 

 old Parkinson reads : " This is generally called prunella and bru- 

 nella from the Germans who called it brunellen, because it cureth 

 that disease which they call die bruen, common to soldiers in 

 campe, but especially in garrison, which is an inflammation of the 

 mouth, throat, and tongue." Among the old herbalists who pre- 

 tended to cure every ill that flesh is heir to with it, it was variously 

 known as carpenter's herb, sicklewort, hook-heal, slough-heal, 

 and brownwort. 



46 



