CLARY 47 



tarn, Penny Mountain, Serpell, Piliol, Thyme, Bank, Creeping or 

 Running Thyme, Shepherd's Wild Thyme. 



The fairies are said to be fond of Thyme. On St. Agnes' Eve it 

 has been used as a love charm, when this formula was repeated : 



" St. Agnes, that 's to lovers kind, 

 Come, ease the troubles of my mind ". 



The Greeks used it in their garlands. It was reputed to have 

 formed the bed of the Virgin Mary. It was used as a remedy for 

 depression. Thyme was used for internal disorders. Attica, where 

 Thyme was abundant, was noted for its honey. The essential oil it 

 yields is heating, not so acrid as that of Garden Thyme. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



250. Thymus Serpylhim, L. Stem woody, prostrate, creeping, 

 leaves small, ovate, with fringed stalks, flowers rose-purple in whorls, 

 flowering stems ascending, upper lip of corolla oblong. 



Clary (Sal via Verbenaca, L,) 



This rather local plant is one of the southern forms which are found 

 in the North Temperate Zone, in Europe south of Denmark, N. Africa, 

 and Western Asia. It is not found in any ancient deposits. In Great 

 Britain it grows in the Peninsula and Channel provinces, except in 

 W. Sussex; in the Thames, Anglia, Severn provinces; in S. Wales in 

 Glamorgan, Carmarthen, Pembroke; in N. Wales in Carnarvon, Den- 

 bigh, Flint, Anglesea; in the Trent province, except in Derby; in the 

 Mersey province, except in S. Lanes; in the H umber and Tyne pro- 

 vinces; and in Scotland in Ayr, Berwick, Edinburgh, Fife, Stirling, 

 Forfar, E. Ross. It is found also in Ireland. 



Much used as an eye salve at one time, there is no doubt that 

 Clary is found in some of its localities owing to this former use to 

 which it was put, as it grows in waste places in many cases. But it 

 is also found on dry pastures on hilly ground, where it is much more 

 probably native. 



Clary is a tall, erect, square -stemmed, branched plant, growing in 

 small clumps. The leaves are oblong, acute, coarsely toothed, wavy, 

 veined, smooth, and the radical leaves are stalked, the stem -leaves 

 stalkless and oblong. The plant is hairy above, smooth below. 



Of a deep-blue colour, the flowers are small, with 6 flowers in 

 a whorl, with long, acute bracts or leaflike organs, shorter than the 

 flowers, turned back. The calyx is equal to the tube of the corolla, 



