Prunella. Skeat defines this material as 'a strong woollen stuff, originally of a dark colour,' Fr. prunelle, 'a sloe,' whence prunella in a Latinised form. We know this word chiefly from Pope's fine lines (Essay on Man, iv. 204):
Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow,
The rest is all but leather or prunella.
To which passage, in the Globe edition, Mr Ward notes 'because clergymen's gowns were often made of this kind of stuff.'—The name Prunella is also given to a genus of plants of the natural order Labiatæ. Several species are natives of Europe; one only is found in Britain, P. vulgaris, popularly known as Self-heal, a plant very frequent in moist and barren pastures, as it is also throughout most parts of Europe, central Asia, North America, and New Holland. It was at one time in considerable repute as a febrifuge. It is mildly aromatic and slightly astringent.