236 THE SHAKESPEARE GARDEN 



youth by causing them to cast their old skins and 

 they recovered their sight by eating the plant." 



The flowers of the fennel are yellow. 



The Greek name for fennel is marathon. The 

 Battle of Marathon took its name from the plant. 

 The story goes that a youth named Pheidippides 

 ran to Sparta to seek aid for Athens when the Per- 

 sian fleet appeared, and he was told that the Spartans 

 could not come until after the full moon. Very 

 disheartened, he was returning to Athens when Pan 

 appeared to him and promised victory, giving the 

 youth a piece of fennel as a token of his prophecy. 

 The battle took place on a field full of fennel and 

 was known henceforth as the Battle of Marathon 

 (490 B. c.). Statues of the youth always repre- 

 sented him as holding a sprig of fennel. Brown- 

 ing has told the story in his "Pheidippides." 



Ill 



Sweet Marjoram, Thyme, and Savory 



MARJORAM (Origanum vulgare) was a favo- 

 rite plant in Tudor and Stuart times. An old writer 

 informs us that "Sweet Marjoram is not only much 

 used to please the outward sense in nosegays and 

 in the windows of houses, as also in sweet powders. 



