WILD THYME 45 



and it is, in fact, an upland species, addicted to hills and dry places, 

 mountain heights, growing there on hillocks and hummocks, delighting 

 in a sloping aspect wherever it grows. 



The stem is woody, shrubby, prostrate, branched, and downy, with 

 turned-back hairs. The leaves are flat, blunt, fringed with hairs below 

 or smooth, on short stalks, dotted with small glands. The flowers are 

 purplish -red, in whorls, and the flowering shoots are suberect, the 

 flowers in heads and subrotund. The corolla has its tubular mouth 

 closed with hairs, with the upper lip with 3 reflexed teeth turned 



WILD THYME (Thymus Serpyllum, L.) 



backwards, the lower narrower, ciliate, fringed with hairs at the 

 margin. The tube of the corolla equals the calyx. The upper lip 

 is oblong and notched. The corolla is 2-lipped. The nutlets are 

 nearly smooth, with 4 small brown seeds. It rarely fruits in Britain. 



Wild Thyme is 6 in. high. Flowers can be found between June 

 and August. It is an evergreen trailer, propagated by cuttings, and 

 ought to be found in our gardens. 



The large flowers are hermaphrodite, the smaller ones pistillate, or 

 female with stamens with functionless anthers, and the one may be 

 a reduction from the other, as the former are much larger than the 

 latter: and the smallest of the former and the largest of the latter are 

 nearly equal in size. The flowers on the same plant are about the 



