240 THE SHAKESPEARE GARDEN 



covered Mount Hymettus and gave to the honey 

 produced there a particularly delicious aromatic 

 flavor. The "honey of Mount Hymettus" became 

 a proverb. Hybla in Sicily was no less famed for 

 its thyme, and, consequently, its honey. Thyme is 

 especially a "bee-plant"; and those who would see 

 their gardens full of bees would do well to plant 

 thyme with lavish hand. Ladies used to embroider 

 a bee hovering over a sprig of thyme on the scarves 

 they gave to their lovers a symbol of action and 

 honor. Thyme, too, was supposed to renew the 

 spirits of man and beast and it was deemed a power- 

 ful antidote against melancholy. 



Turning to our old friend, Parkinson, we find 

 that 



"The ordinary garden Thyme (Thymus vulga- 

 tius sive durius) is a small, low, woody plant with 

 brittle branches and small, hard, green leaves, as 

 every one knoweth, having small white purplish 

 flowers standing round about the tops of the stalks. 

 The seed is small and brown, darker than Marjoram. 

 The root is woody and abideth well divers Winters. 



"To set down all the particular uses whereunto 

 Thyme is applied were to weary both the writer and 

 the reader. I will but only note out a few, for be- 

 sides the physical uses to many purposes for the 



