The fragile blossoms of the harebell lurk in the seclusion of our cool cañons or peer down at us from the banks of shaded mountain roads toward the end of July. We almost wonder that this ethereal flower dares delay its coming so long when outside its cool retreat all is parched and dry. It forms a delicate contrast to its more robust English sister, the harebell so often celebrated by the poets.
SELF-HEAL. HEAL-ALL.
Brunella vulgaris, L. Mint Family.
Stems.—Six to fifteen inches high. Leaves.—Opposite; petioled; ovate or oblong. Flowers.—In a dense, short spike, with broad, leafy bracts; purple, violet, or rarely white. Calyx.—Bilabiate; upper lip with three short teeth; the lower two-cleft. Corolla.—Bilabiate; upper lip arched, entire; lower three-lobed; deflexed. Stamens.—Four; in pairs. Filaments two-forked; one fork naked, the other bearing the two-celled anther. Ovary.—Of four seedlike nutlets. Style filiform; two-cleft above. Hab.—Widely distributed over the Northern Hemisphere.
From April to July the purple blossoms of the self-heal, or heal-all, may be found in the borders of woods or in open grounds.
The generic name is thought to come from the old German word, braune, a disease of the throat, for which this plant was believed to be a cure. According to the old doctrine of signatures, plants by their appearance were supposed to indicate the diseases for which nature intended them as remedies, and in England the Brunella was considered particularly efficacious in the disorders of carpenters and common laborers, because its corolla resembled a bill-hook. Hence it was commonly called "carpenter's herb," "hook-heal," and "sicklewort."
[CALIFORNIAN HAREBELL—Campanula prenanthoides.]
![[CALIFORNIAN HAREBELL—Campanula prenanthoides.]](#3624944100741987669_f124.png.id-6969145797102874852.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}