•^ The ^Aromatic Herbs {j£ 



and Cantabrigia Illustrata, were made of this shrub. 

 These sundials are shown in the gardens of New College, 

 Oxford, and Queen's College and Pembroke College, 

 Cambridge. We know from William Hughes' Flower 

 Garden (1671) that these ' living sundials ' were much in 

 favour in the West Indies, where they were laid out with 

 myrtle. S. incana nana, the very dwarf form, is a fine 

 little plant for edging. S. viridis, which was not intro- 

 duced till the eighteenth century, is also a native of the 

 south of Europe. It is not nearly so attractive as S. 

 chamaecyparissus, being green, with longer and thinner 

 leaves, less dense in growth and with less fragrance. Also, 

 it is not so hardy. S. pennata and S. rosmarinifolia are 

 both attractive. 



The thymes are fascinating to collect and amongst the 

 most attractive are, I think, T. erectus, the cypress 

 thyme, which looks like a little juniper, a tiny pillar of 

 green for the greater part of the year, but wreathed in 

 summer in a thick cloud of purplish aromatic flowers, and 

 T. nitidus, a compact fairy bush, like a miniature Irish 

 yew. In May the latter has a profusion of pinkish 

 flowers. We have about 30 kinds altogether — the common 

 thyme (T. vulgaris), which is an improved variety of the 

 wild thyme of the Mediterranean coast ; T. aurea (golden 

 dwarf) ; 1 . azoricus (dwarf), with purple flowers ; 

 T. chamaedrys montana (pink flowers) ; T. carnosus 

 erectus (erect variety, about 9 inches, with white flowers in 

 August and September) ; T. citriodorus (lemon scented) ; 

 T. c. coccineus (magenta crimson flowers) ; T. c. lanu- 

 ginosa (carpeting variety with downy foliage) ; T. c. fol. 

 arg. var. Silver Queen ; T. c. aur. var. (golden variegated) ; 

 T. corsicus syn. Mentha requienii ; T. ericae folia (golden 



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