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Pulmonaria, or Lungwort

Pulmonaria officinalis.

LEARNED writers are often too ready to sneer at homely medicines and medicinal herbs, but a plant that has traditional fame as an aid in sickness may be taken to have done something for humanity, in however humble a way. If we turn to a materia medica, say Pereira's for instance, we shall find no mention of the lungwort. And here it seems proper to observe that a plant may possess properties that cannot be preserved in extracts or unguents, which in such concentrated form are kept bottled and sealed down for use when wanted. But to obtain a place in the materia medica, it must have properties that can be secured for future service by distillation or some other process, and consequently if it is useful only in a fresh state as an infusion or fumigation, it must remain unknown to technical medicine. The lungwort doubtless obtained its name from services rendered in lung diseases when the medical art was in a primitive state. And if it proved useful in ages gone by it would prove useful now, unless we were armed with better curative agencies, as no doubt we are, and therefore it is not surprising that the plant is no longer famous as a great power in healing. It is astringent, mucilaginous, and nitrous, and a steep or infusion would no doubt help any poor wheezing creature in the present day as it did a thousand years ago when the inhalation of steam and the use of cod-liver oil were unknown. It would be wrong to ignore the possible virtues of medicinal plants that have gone out of fashion, because every scrap of true knowledge has its value for mankind. As a garden flower the lungwort is worthy of attention. It belongs to the very limited company of true blues, for the flowers are very blue when fully out, though brilliant pink in the bud. Strange to say, it obtained its homely name as well as its scientific name from the spots on the leaves, which suggest a resemblance to the lungs, and this plant is one of the immense number that originally owed their repute to their compliance with what was called the doctrine of signatures or signatores. Such plants occasionally agreed in quality with the signs they bore, but the signature notion was peculiarly injurious because it engendered contempt in the minds of reasonable men, and so tempted them to ignore good things because of the many bad things they were called upon to recognise.

In the garden we have a pretty little group of plants that the "hardy" gardener will not neglect if he possesses average wisdom. This common lungwort (Pulmonaria officinalis) must have first consideration, for it makes a handsome tuft of leafage, and the flowering adds a gay sparkle of colour. The seaside gromwell (P. maritima), a native of our western coasts, is a good rockery plant. The leaves are of a glaucous hue, the flower-buds pink, changing as they expand to rich blue. As the leaves emit an odour suggestive of oysters, and have a touch of oyster flavour, it is sometimes called the oyster plant. To grow this plant a sandy soil is needed, and it must be protected against damp by being banked up with a little heap of small stones. The Virginian cowslip (P. Virginica) is a plant of bold habit, flowering early, the flowers a clear pale blue. A more striking plant, but flowering later, is the panicled lungwort (P. paniculata), which needs a somewhat shaded position on the rockery. When in flower it presents many shades of sparkling red, purple, and pale blue, and is quite a gem in its way. The Siberian lungwort (P. Dahurica) is a graceful plant rising above the tufted rock plants, and producing fine clusters of blue flowers in the month of May. In searching for any of these in the books it will be well to bear in mind that some of them are classed under the genus Mertensia, a distinction depending on the relative length of the stamens.

A fine companion plant to these blue borageworts is Onosma taurica, a handsome tufted plant bearing large yellow flowers in the early summer. It may be likened to a yellow comfrey, but it is distinct and more refined. We have not seen the lungwort used in the preparation of a cool tankard, but it would probably answer as well, being equally nitrous with borage. It has long enjoyed some kind of repute as a pot-herb, being commonly cooked and eaten in the north and in some parts of Scotland. It is the peculiar characteristic of the borage tribe to contain a notable quantity of nitre, and there is no doubt a direct connection between this and their frequent production of blue flowers. The common borage in ancient times ranked as one of the four great cordial plants, the others being the rose, the violet, and the alkanet. The bugloss, the gromwell, the hound's tongue, and the forget-me-not are alliances of the lungwort in the borage family, and shades of blue prevail in their flowers. The loveliest of all blue flowering garden plants is the creeping gromwell (Lithospermum prostratum), which forms a dense mat of evergreen leaves overspread in the spring with flowers of the intensest blue. Those who can grow this gromwell on a dry sunny rockery may be advised to plant also Veronica saxatilis and Myosotis alpestris, also known as M. rupicola, for these also reflect the colour of the unclouded sky when summer reigns and the air is sweet.