178 WILD THYME. 



of aromatic plants, and that they will carefully 

 push aside the Thyme to get at the grass 

 growing beneath. He adds that they never 

 touch it, except when walking upon it, when 

 they will catch at anything. 



The odour of the Wild Thyme is increased 

 when we tread upon it, and its flavour is very 

 similar to that of the kind cultivated in the 

 kitchen-garden ; like that plant, too, it yields 

 a strong essential oil. It was OTvdng to its 

 grateful aroma that the genus derived its name 

 from the Greek word signifying mental vigour, 

 its balsamic odour being supposed to strengthen 

 the animal spirits. Country people make the 

 Thyme into tea for curing head -ache, and also 

 consider it a certain cure for nightmare. Few 

 wild plants vary more than this in size. When 

 grooving on dry exposed downs it is small and 

 close to the ground, but when springing up 

 among the Furze and Broom and Ling, and 

 other plants of the Heath land, its stalk is 

 often a foot high, and its cluster of flowers 

 much larger. The leaves, too, are in some 

 plants hairy, and in others quite smooth. It 

 is the only British species of the genus. 



