46 FLOWERS OF THE HILLS AND DRY PLACES 



same size, but the hermaphrodite flowers enlarge as they pass from the 

 male to the female stage. It has lost the power of self-pollination, 

 being much visited by insects for its abundant honey. 



The base of the ovary is enlarged to secrete the honey and serves 

 to attract insects, which quickly pollinate the flowers, the parts project- 

 ing. The tube is smooth at the base, lined with hairs above to keep 

 out rain. It is 2^ mm. long, and thus open to many insects. The 

 style is short, and the anthers are much longer at first, the fila- 

 ments varying in length, but the former elongates (and both project 

 from the corolla), and then divides and becomes covered with wart- 

 like knobs, the lobes spreading. The female flowers are more fertile 

 than the hermaphrodite. A third type was found by Delpino with 

 hermaphrodite flowers, with stamens and pistil equally developed, and 

 others with highly developed stamens l and abortive pistil, and vice 

 versa. 



There is a tendency towards the production of purely male flowers 

 in England, the stigma not maturing in some hermaphrodite plants. 

 Wild Thyme is visited by the Honey Bee, Bombus, Saropoda, Andrena, 

 Megachilc, Nomada, C&lioxys, Ammophila, Cerceris, Lindenius, Systce- 

 chiis, Emstalts, Sicus, Myopa, Litcilia, Echinomyia, Gymnosoma, 

 Ocyptera, Sarcopkaga, and the Lepicloptera Satyrus, Argynnis, Lyc&na, 

 Sesia. 



The nutlets are free at length, and fall out automatically around the 

 parent species. 



Being largely a rock plant, Wild Thyme grows on rock soils, either 

 sand or lime, being common on chalk and oolite. 



The leaves are attacked by a cluster-cup fungus Puccinia schneideri. 

 Several beetles, Apion atomarium, Meligethes lugubris, Chrysomela 

 cerealis, Adimonia tanaceti, Longitarsiis pulex, L. pellucidus, Butalis 

 senescens, Pterophorus tetradactylus, Id<za straminata, /. rubiginata, 

 /. decorata, Lepidoptera, Dwarf Pug (Eupithecia pusillata), Grapho- 

 litha comptana, Large Blue (Polyommatus Arion\ Pemphelia dilutella, 

 Gelechia artemisiella, and a Homopterous insect, Tettigometra im- 

 pressopunctata, live upon Thyme. 



Tkymus, Theophrastus, is from the Greek thuo, I excite, or tkumos, 

 courage, because of its smell, which revives the spirits. Serpyllum, 

 Pliny, is a Latin name for thyme, 



Pliny also says that, when burnt, Wild Thyme put to flight all 

 creeping venomous creatures. It is called Brotherwort, Hill-wort, 

 Horse Thyme, Mother of Thyme, Pella Mountain or Puliall Moun- 



1 Delpino found male flowers near Florence. These do not occur in this country apparently. 



