26 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



? Sub-Species I. -Thymus eu-Serpyllum. 



Plate MXLIII. 



Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 828. 



T. Serpyllum, Fries, Nov. Fl. Suec. ed. ii. p. 165. Bab. Man. Brit. Bot. etl. v. p. 25G. 



T. Sorjij-llum, var. o. IIool: & Am. Brit. Fl. cd. viii. p. 326. 



Stems weak, procumbent, rooting, much branched, with the barren 

 shoots lateral and terminal, the latter elongate, rooting; stem of the 

 preceding year continued as a barren shoot or dying off. Leaves oblong- 

 oblanceolate or oval-oblanceolate, gradually attenuated into the petiole. 

 Flowering shoots all ( ?) lateral, erect, or ascending, short. Flowers 

 capitate, or rarely with 1 whorl beneath the terminal head. Stem 

 usually pubescent all round. 



On banks, pastures, heaths, and on rocks. Common, especially in 

 mountainous districts; generally distributed. Iiare in the immediate 

 vicinity of London. 



England, Scotland, Ireland, rcrcnuial. Summer and eai'ly Autumn. 



Ilootstock woody. Steins woody, wiry, prostrate, cree[)ing, jiroducing 

 short barren branches and ascending flowering shoots; the a pe.x; con- 

 tinuing to grow as a barren shoot in the succeeding year or dying at 

 the apex. Leaves J to ^ inch long, usually ciliated with long white hairs, 

 midrib thick, prominent beneath, as are also the lateral veins, which 

 are usually 2 on each side. Flowering stems 1 to 3 inches high, ter- 

 minated by a dense head of flowers. Pedicels more or less hispid 

 Avith white hairs. Calyx generally purple, with white hairs ; the throat 

 in fruit closed by a dense tuft of them. Corolla scarcely \ inch long, 

 rosy purple, the upper lip quadrate-oi-bicular, deeply notched ; lower lip 

 slightly longer. Plant varying much in hairiness, sometimes, es[)ecially 

 in dry chalky places, quite white with hairs, and at other times the leaves 

 quite ghdjrou.s, except a few haii's on the margins at the base. Stem 

 hair}', with short or elongated reflexed white hairs all round, or with a 

 tendency to be confined to two strips of pubescence. 



Creeping Wild Thyme. 



French, Tliijm .scijuilcf. German, Feld Qiieinlcl. 



This woll-kno-\vn pretty swect-sconted little evergreen is abnuJant on all sandy or 

 calcareous pastures ; and but few of us are there who do not 



" Know a bank on which the wild thyme blows." 

 It forms thick, dense tufts when growing alone, but when mingling with other licrbago 

 it runs among them, throwing out long trailing stems, ^vllich root at intervals. There 

 are two kinds of thyme cultivated in gardens for culinary purj^oses, the common 

 thyme and the lemon-scented thj-me. Both plants are strongly aromatic, the leaves 

 and flowers esjiecially containing a large qiiantity of essential oil. Little use has been 

 made of it in medicine, but the oil is sometimes applied as a remedy in toothache. 



