THY 



419 



THY 



THUS. [BOSWKLLIA.] 



THYATEIRA. [LYDIA.] 



TIIYLA'CINUS. [MASSUPIALIA, vol. xiv., p. 455.] 



THYLACOTHE'RIUM. [MARSUPIALS, vol. xiv., 

 p. 404.] 



THYME. [THYMUS.] 



TIIYMELA'CE^E, a natural order of plants belonging- 

 to the tubiferous group of Incomplete Exogens. The name 

 of this order is derived from Thymelaea, a plant spoken of 

 by the antients, and which some have supposed to be the 

 Daphne Gnidium, a plant belonging to the present order. 

 This order consists of shrubs or small trees.very rarely herba- 

 ceous, with non-articulated, sometimes spiny branches 

 ha\ ing a very tenacious bark. The leaves are entire, simple, 

 without stipules, and alternate or opposite. The flowers are 

 capitate or spiked, terminal or axillary, occasionally solitary. 

 The calyx is tubular, coloured, 4-cleft with an imbricate 

 ation ; the stamens 2-4 or 8 in number, inserted into 

 the tube with 2-celled anthers, dehiscing lengthwise in the 

 middle ; the ovary is solitary, with a solitary pendulous 

 ovule ; the fruit is hard and dry, or drupaceous ; the seed 

 has little or no albumen, a straight embryo, with a short 

 radicle and entire cotyledons. This order is related to 

 Santalaceae, from which it differs in its inferior calyx. It 

 is also allied to Elaeagnaceae and Proteaceae, from both of 

 which it is distinguished by its pendulous ovules. Lindley 

 - to this order Bartliug's Anthoboleae, on account of 

 tlu'ir superior fruit. [Exoc.vHPUs.] The species are 

 found in Europe, but are not common ; they occur in 

 greatest abundance in the cooler parts of India and 

 South America, at the Cape of Good Hope, and in New 

 Holland. 



The most prominent property of this order is their caus- 

 ticity, which resides in their bark. When applied to the 

 skin, it products vesication, and pain in the mouth when 

 chewed. The bark of several of the species is very tough, 

 and may be manufactured into cordage. Passenna tinc- 

 toria yields a dye which is used in the south of Europe to 

 colour wool yellow. The various species of Daphne pos- 

 sess active properties ; some are used for dyeing, some are 

 poisonous, and the Daphne Lagetta is the Lace-bark-tree 

 of Jamaica. 



<! Mewrrum. 



ilh flown; 2, ditto with fruit; 3, sinslc flower; 4. calyx 

 . ih.r-ins Hie insertion of the etarocru ; 5, section of ovary, thowing the 

 ,119 seed. 



THYMUS (Mpot), the name of a genus of plants 

 .. urine to the natural order Lamiaceae or Lahiatae. It 

 ha* an ovate bilabiate calyx with thirteen ribs ; the upper 

 lip is trifid, the lower lip is bifid with ciliated subulate 

 segments, and throat villous inside ; the corolla with the 

 upper lip erect, nearly plane, notched, lower jmtenl anil 

 tnAd : stamens straight, exserted ; anthers ^-ccllc.1 ; styles 

 bifid at apex. All the species are small un 



with usually purplish flowers. Between twenty and 

 thirty species have been described by botanists, most 

 of them inhabitants of Europe, especially the region of 

 the Mediterranean : one only is a native of the British 

 Isles. 



T. vulgaris, Common or Garden Thyme, is an erect 

 plant, or sometimes procumbent at the base, or clothed 

 with a hoary pubescence ; the leaves are sessile, linear, or 

 ovato-lanceolate, acute, with revolute edges, fascicled in 

 the axils ; the teeth of the upper lip of the calyx are lan- 

 ceolate, but the segments of the lower lip are subulate and 

 ciliated. This plant is a native of the south-west parts of 

 Europe, in dry plains and on hills, and uncultivated places 

 free I'rora woods. The- plant is very much branched, and 

 has purplish flowers. This species is cultivated for culinary 

 purposes, and many varieties of it are met with in 

 gardens. It has a pungent aromatic odour and taste. These 

 properties are communicated to water by infusion only to 

 a slight extent. They depend upon an essential oil, an 

 ounce of which may be obtained from thirty pounds of the 

 plant. 



T. serpyllum, Wild Thyme, or Mother-of-Thyme, is a suf- 

 fruticose plant, with capitate flowers, branched decum- 

 bent stems, with plain, ovate, obtuse, entire, petiolate 

 leaves, more or less ciliated at the base. It is a native of 

 Great Britain, on hills and in dry pastures, and throughout 

 Europe and the north of Asia. This plant has the same 

 sensible properties as the last, but is more inclined to 

 produce varieties, several of which have been described as 

 species. These vary principally in the colour of the 

 flowers and the size of the leaves and plant. One of the 

 varieties, T. s. citrutu*, is known by the name of Lemon- 

 Thyme on account of its scent resembling the lemon. The 

 seeds will not however maintain this property : if required 

 to be preserved, the plants must be propagated by means 

 of slips or cuttings. 



Both this and the former species, when cultivated, are 

 best raised by means of seeds, although they may be easily 

 propagated by parting the roots or planting slips and cut- 

 tings. The seed may be sown in March or April, in a light 

 tinr soil, and when the plants are two or three inches 

 high, they should be transplanted. Roots or slips should 

 be planted in the autumn. The plants produce abundance 

 of seeds in the summer and autumn, which, when gathered, 

 should be rubbed out, and preserved for planting in the 

 following spring. 



These plants are not so much used in medicine as for 

 culinary purposes. The volatile oil is frequently used as 

 an application to carious teeth. Linnaeus recommends 

 them as a remedy for dissipating the effects of intoxicating 

 liquors, and a decoction is used in France as an application 

 for the itch. 



T. maslichina, Mastich-Thyme, or Herb-Mastich, has 

 ovate or oblong, obtuse, petiolate leaves, narrowed at the 

 base and not ciliated ; the calyx is villous, with feathery sub- 

 ulate teeth, which are longer than the tube. It is a native 

 of dry, sandy, uncultivated places in Spain, Portugal, and 

 Barbary. It exhales a scent resembling mastich. It is 

 the Ma rum vulgare of older botanists, and at one time 

 had some reputation as an errhine. Several other species 

 of thyme are cultivated ; they do not require much care ; 

 the more delicate and rarer kinds are found amongst col- 

 lections of alpine plants. 



THYMUS GLAND, which in the calf and lamb is 

 called the sweetbread, is an organ situated 'behind the 

 ntrrnum, in the anterior mediastinum, in front of the peri- 

 cardium and the large vessels arising from the base of the 

 In the embryo and the infant it has, in proportion 

 to the rest of the body, a very considerable size ; in after- 

 life it becomes comparatively smaller, and at last near'y 

 disappears. It is of an elongated form, its greatest dimen- 

 sion being from above downwards, and is composed of two 

 chief portions, which, by careful dissection, may be sepa- 

 rated in the middle line. At each end it bears two pro- 

 cesses or horns, of which the upper are longer and more 

 slender than the lower, and the right are usually longer 

 than the left. It is supplied by several branches from the 

 internal mammary, inferior thyroid, and mediastinal arte- 

 ii which veins of considerable size correspond. Its 

 absorbent vessels are numerous and large, but not more 

 so than in other glands of equal vascularity. 



The thymus gland is composed of a great number of 

 similar small masses or lobules, which may be separated 



3H 2 



