The Description.

            1. Prunel or Brunel hath square hairy talks of a foot high, beset with long hairy and sharp pointed leaves, & at the top of the stalks grow flowers thick set together, like an ear or spiky knop, of a brown colour mixed with blue flowers; and sometimes white, of which kind I found some plants in Essex near Hedingham castle. The root is small and very thready.

            2. Prunella altera, or after Lobel and Pena, Symphytum petreum, hath leaves like the last described, but somewhat narrower, and the leaves that grow commonly towards the tops of the stalks, are deeply divided or cut in, after the manner of the leaves of the Small Valerian, and sometimes the lower leaves are also divided, but that is more seldom; the heads and flowers are like those of the former, and the colour of the flowers is commonly purple yet sometimes it is found with flesh coloured, and otherwhiles with white or ash coloured flowers.

Fig. 947. White-Flowered Self-Heal (3)

            3. The third sort of Self-Heal is like unto the last described in root, stalk, & leaves, & in every other point saving that the flowers hereof are of a perfect white colour, and the others not so, which maketh the difference.

The Place.

            1. The first kind of Prunel or Brunel groweth very commonly in all our fields throughout England.

            2. The second Brunel or Symphytum petræum groweth naturally upon rocks, stony mountains, and gravelly grounds.

            3. The third for any thing that I know is a stranger with us: but the first common kind I have found with white flowers.

The Time.

            These plants flower for the most part all summer long.

The Names.

            Brunel is called in English Prunel, Carpenter's Herb, Self-heal, and Hook-Heal, and Sicklewort. It is called of the later herbarists Brunella: and Prunella: of Matthiolus, Consolida minor, and Solidago minor: but saith Ruellius, the Daisy is the right Consolida minor, and also the Solidago minor.

The Nature.

            These herbs are of the temperature of Bugula, that is to say, moderately hot and dry, and something binding.

The Virtues.

            A. The decoction of Prunel made with wine or water, doth join together and make whole and sound all wounds, both inward and outward, even as Bugle doth.

            B. Prunel bruised with oil of Roses and vinegar, and laid to the forepart of the head, assuageth and helpeth the pain and aching thereof.

            C. To be short, it serveth for the same that Bugle doth, and in the world there are not two better wound herbs, as hath been often proved.

            D. It is commended against the infirmities of the mouth, and especially the ruggedness, blackness, and dryness of the tongue, with a kind of swelling in the same. It is an infirmity amongst soldiers that lie in camp. The Germans call it De Braun, which happeneth not without a continual ague and frenzy. The remedy hereof is the decoction of Self-Heal, with common water after blood letting out of the veins of the tongue: and the mouth and tongue must be often washed with the same decoction, and sometimes a little vinegar mixed therewith. This disease is thought to be unknown to the old writers: but notwithstanding if it be conferred with that which Paulus Æegineta calleth Erysipelas cerebri, an inflammation of the brain, then will it not be thought to be much differing, if it be not the very same.