804 THYMUS. rCLASS XIV. ORDER I. 



■with white stripes, and from its curious appearance it is sometime.^ 

 cultivated in flower gardens. 



** Mouth of the calyx closed with hairs. 



9. M. Pule'gium, Linn. (Fig. 924 ) Penny -royal. Stem prostrate ; 

 leaves petiolated, ovale, obsoletely toothed, downy; flowers in distant 

 globose whorls; calyx tubular, downy, as well as the pedicles, the 

 mouth closed by a ring of hairs. 



English Botany, t. 1026. — English Flora, vol. iii. p. 88.— Hooker, 

 British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 228. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 201. 



Root fibrous, with spreading suckers. Stems slender, obtusely 

 angular, pink and downy, prostrate at the base, and putting out roots 

 from the lower joints. Leaves numerous, mostly recurved, small, 

 ovate, frequently recurved, on short slender footstalks, downy, paler on 

 the under side, and with prominent mid-rib and lateral veins, Injio- 

 rescence of numerous crowded flowers, in distant globose whorls, the 

 pedicles slender, clothed with close soft pubescence. Calyx tubular, 

 ten ribbed, downy, the teeth lanceolate, ciliated, the mouth closed with 

 a ring of short hairs. Corolla about as long again as the calyx, downy 

 externally, a purplish pink, sometimes white. Stamens longer than 

 the corolla. 



Habitat. — Margins of streams, wet commons ; not uufrequent in 

 England and the South of Ireland. 



Perennial; flowering in August and September. 



The leaves and calyx are profusely scattered over with small round 

 glandular dots, which secrete an abundance of highly fragrant oil, upon 

 which the property of the plant depends. This plant was formerly 

 held in high esteem as an emmonagogue expectorant, diuretic, and 

 antispasmodic, but it has not now the high reputation which it had, 

 and is seldom used in medicine for these purposes, but only as a 

 carminative. 



GENUS 11. THY'MUS — Linn. Thyme. 

 Nat. Ord. LABiA.'TEiE. Juss. 

 Gen. Char. Flowers in whorled capitate racemes. Calyx tubular, 

 ten ribbed, two lipped, the upper lip three toothed, the lower one 

 bifid, throat hairy. Corolla with the upper lip straight, notched, 

 the lower trifid, tube naked.— Name from 9i>/xo?, strength; on 

 account of its strong balsamic odour strengthening and reviving 

 the spirits of animals. 

 1. T. Serpyl'lum, Linn. (Fig. 925.) Wild Thyme. Stem recum- 

 bent, whorls in racemose heads ; leaves flat, elliptic, ovate, obtuse ; 

 petiole short, the margin ciliated, entire. 



English Botany, t. 1514.— English Flora, vol. iii. p. 108.— Hooker, 

 British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 228,— Lindley, Synopsis, p. 201. 



