Prunella

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. In pathology: Sore throat.
2. n. Thrush.
3. n. Angina pectoris.
4. n. A plant of the genus Prunella. Also brunel.
5. n. [capitalized] [NL. (Linnæus, 1737; earlier Brunella, Tournefort, 1700).] A genus of plants, now known as Brunella, belonging to the order Labiatæ, tribe Stachydeæ, and subtribe Scutellarieæ, characterized by a two-lipped calyx with three lobes in the upper and two in the lower lip, anthers with two divaricate cells, and both style and filaments two-toothed at the apex. There are two or three species, widely dispersed throughout temperate regions and on mountains in the tropics. They are perennial herbs, partially erect from a decumbent base, with opposite and entire toothed or pinnatifid leaves, a flattened and truncate ten-nerved calyx, and purplish, blue, red, or white flowers, six in a verticillaster, and crowded in a dense terminal spike with broad rounded bracts between. P. (Brunella) grandiflora and other species are cultivated for the beauty of their flowers. P. (Brunella) vulgaris, the self-heal, widely distributed over the world (except Africa) and remarkable for the intense violet of its flower-buds, has also the old or provincial names allheal, brunel, carpenter-grass, herb-carpenter, heart-of-the-earth, hookheal, hookweed, sickleheal, and sicklewort. (See healall and carpenter's-herb, and cut under self-heal.) The decoction of its leaves and stem is still in domestic use for healing wounds, for which it was once in the highest esteem.
6. n. A preparation of purified niter or potassium nitrate molded into cakes or balls. Also called prunella salt and sal prunella.
7. n. A kind of lasting of which clergymen's gowns were once made, now rarely used except for the uppers of women's shoes. Also called everlasting.
8. n. In ornithology, a genus of birds: same as Accentor.

Wiktionary

1. n. A taxonomic genus within the family Prunellidae — the accentors.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. Angina, or angina pectoris.
2. n. Thrush.
3. n. A smooth woolen stuff, generally black, used for making shoes; a kind of lasting; -- formerly used also for clergymen's gowns.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. small genus of perennial mostly Eurasian having terminal spikes of small purplish or white flowers
2. n. type genus of the Prunellidae