SCUTELLA RIA COLUM NS. 
HEART-LEAVED SCULL-CAP. 
Class. Order. 
DIDYNAMIA. GYM NOSPERM 1A . 
Natural Order. 
LABIATE. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Introduced 
Italy. 
15 inches. 
June, July. 
Perennial. 
in 1806. 
No. 141. 
The term Scutellaria, has been adopted from the 
Latin scutella, a small dish; or scutellum, a little 
shield ; in allusion to a curious concave appendage 
which crowns the calyx of the plant. Column*, 
used from the name of Columna, one of the noble 
Roman family of Colonna, a man of considerable 
talent as a botanist and draughtsman. The English 
appellation, Scull-cap, must have been suggested by 
the same peculiarity of appendage to the seed vessel, 
which gave rise to its systematic name. 
Perhaps no genus is more readily distinguished 
by the formation of its seed vessel than the Scutel- 
laria. “From the singular and peculiar shape of 
the fruit or pericarpium,” says Columna, “which we 
have not observed in any other plant, expressing 
the figure of a military helmet or casque, we thought 
it proper to call it Cassida, for so they call it in Latin.” 
Linneus, in his reformed system, suppressed the name 
alluding to the shape of the entire calyx, and adopted 
Scutellaria, which conveys a more direct allusion to 
its little attendant dish. 
Columna was a man of such talent as renders it 
unjust to pass over his name without further notice 
36 
