Tussy-mussies 303 



tered over with little balls of blossom, pink in color, and of 

 a delightful freshness." 



Thyme was, in older days, spelt Thime and Time. 

 This made the poet call it " pun-provoking Thyme." 

 I have an ancient recipe from an old herbal for 

 " Water of Time to ease the Passions of the Heart." 

 This remedy is efficacious to-day, whether you spell 

 it time or thyme. 



There are shown on page 301 some lonely graves 

 in the old Moravian burying-ground in Bethlehem, 

 overgrown with the pleasant perfumed Thyme. 

 And as we stand by their side we think with a half 

 smile a tender one of the never-failing pun of 

 the old herbalists. 



Spenser called Thyme " bee-alluring," " honey- 

 laden." It was the symbol of sweetness ; and the 

 Thyme that grew on the sunny slopes of Mt. 

 Hymettus gave to the bees the sweetest and most 

 famed of all honey. The plant furnished physic as 

 well as perfume and puns and honey. Pliny named 

 eighteen sovereign remedies made from Thyme. 

 These cured everything from the " bite of poysonful 

 spidars " to " the Apoplex." There were so many 

 recipes in the English Compleat Chirurgeon, and 

 similar medical books, that you would fancy veno- 

 mous spiders were as thick as gnats in England. 

 These spider cure-alls are however simply a proof 

 that the recipes were taken from dose-books of Pliny 

 and various Roman physicians, with whom spider 

 bites were more common and more painful than in 

 England. 



