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."
[Illustration CALIFORNIAN HAREBELL--_Campanula prenanthoides_.]
_Monardella villosa_, Benth. Mint Family.
_Stems._--Woody; branching from below; a foot or two high. _Leaves._--An inch or less long; toothed or entire; veins conspicuous. _Flowers._--White to deep lilac; in a dense head subtended by a number of ovate, green bracts. _Calyx._--Tubular; five-toothed; four lines long. _Corolla._--Nine lines long; with filiform tube and bilabiate border. Upper lip two-cleft; lower cleft into three linear divisions. _Stamens._--Four; in pairs; exserted. Anther cells divergent. _Ovary._--Of four seedlike nutlets. _Hab._--Throughout the State; common.
Owing to their resemblance to the _Monarda_, or horsemint of the East, these Western plants have been given the diminutive of its name--_Monardella_.
In early summer the blossoms, which are generally purple, are conspicuous in our drying woods. The herbage is pleasantly fragrant. The more hairy form, which suggested the specific name, is found in the south.
Another species--_M. lanceolata_, Gray--common in the Sierras and south to San Diego, is a very handsome plant with lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, entire leaves, an inch or two long, and having its bright rose-colored or purple corollas sometimes dark-spotted. This is known among the Spanish-Californians as "poléo" (pennyroyal), and is valued as a remedy for various ailments.
_M. odoratissima_, Benth., found abundantly in the Sierras, and known as "wild pennyroyal," is a bushy, many-stemmed plant, whose flowers usually have a faded lavender hue. But the plant is exceedingly fragrant, perfuming the air all about.