THYME. 149 



with a small bracte, and, when magnified, the bractes and calyces 

 are seen to be densely covered with jointed hairs. The calyx is 

 unequally 4-cleft, the corolla labiate, and of a red colour ; the 

 calyx and flower, after being soaked in water for 24 hours, only 

 measured |- of an inch in length. The leaves, when magnified, 

 present a mossy surface, which is thickly pitted, each pit containing 

 a granule of red, resinified essential oil.** 



Ziziphora tenuior, Linn. This plant is a native of Persia 

 and Beluchistan, and is sold in the Indian Bazars under the name 

 of Mishk-i-taramashia. The Mahomedans of the East identify this 

 plant with the fi^yt?, or " Wild Thyme," of the Greeks. In Shiraz 

 it is called Eang. 



Aitchison states that the peasants in the Harirud Yalley and 

 Khorasan call the plant Kakuti. As described by Dr. Dymockf 

 and others, it is a small herbaceous plant resembling Thyme, two 

 or three inches high ; the root is about the same length, woody, 

 single, with a few small fibres. The stems, which are 2 to 5 in 

 number, are square, and are also woody, and branch from the 

 ground ; they are thickly studded with leaves and lateral flowers, 

 which reach to the apex, and form a spike. The leaves are 

 opposite, linear-lanceolate, and have several prominent, straight 

 veins on each side of the midrib. The calyx is purple and striated 

 with 13 nerves, throat bearded ; corolla 2-lipped, the upper lip 

 reflexed, the lower one trifid and spreading. The seeds are four in 

 number, oblong, brown in colour. The odour and taste of the 

 plant is very pleasant, like ^Pfj:>pen?ir/i/, hut sweeter. The plant is 

 figured in Lamarck's " Illustration des genres," t. 18, f. 2 ; the 

 Spanish species, Z. hispanica, being shewn on the same plate, f. 1. 



Z. serpyllacea, the " Sweet-scented Ziziphora," native of the 

 Caucasus, is figured in Bot. Mag. t. 906. 



Thymus piperella, Lin. Syst., p. 452, the "Small Peppermint 

 Thyme," is a native of the region of the Mediterranean, as Barbary, 

 Spain, Mount Parnassus, &c. It is a small procumbent suffniticose 

 shrub, with ascending, stiff, pubescent branches. The leaves are 

 petiolate, broad-ovate, obtuse, truncatety subcordate at the base, 

 not ciliated, thick, stiff, veiny, glandular ; the floral ones 



* Pharmacographia Indica, iii., p. 115. 

 t Ibid., iii., p. 115. 



