120 



and rears up its heads of little pink flowers, alluring by their 

 scent a thousand delicate insects, robbed by every vigilant bee, 

 and yet still so sweet. It was a happy thought of the ladies 

 of former times to represent activity by a bee hovering over a 

 sprig of Thyme, and thus to recommend to their favored knight 

 the union of the active and the sweet. In our country the 

 Thyme grows equally well on the overhanging cliff and the 

 sunny bank ; the lofty mountain side and the low and quiet 

 thicket : 



" O'er fringed heaths, wide lawns, and mountain steeps, 

 With silent step the fragrant Thyma creeps." 



Not in this country alone, but equally throughout Europe, 

 the slopes of the Alps and the Appenines, the fertile vales of 

 Italy and Sicily, and the barren mountain- sides of Greece and 

 Turkey are clothed with this sweet herb, and in the classic 

 regions of Thessaly and Athens it was considered indicative of 

 grace and elegance. Thus the ancient poets vie with the 

 moderns in its praise. Virgil talks of " the attic bees of the 

 flowery Hymettus " and in another place says, 



" No more, my goats, shall I behold you climb 

 The steepy cliffs, or crop the flowering Thyrne." 



Dry den's Virgil. 



SELF-HEAL. PRUNELLA. 



COMMON SELF-HEAL. Prunella vulgar is. 



Plate 9, fig. 2. 



Damp meadows, and other places, similar to those where 

 the Bugle is found ; here it grows a foot or more high, and 

 upright, but if found in a sunny situation it is very much 

 smaller, and more drooping. Its flowers are purple-reddish 

 or white, collected in a very close spike of whirls at the top 

 of the stem, with a pair of leaves alone under it. The leaves 

 are stalked, oblong, with a few hairs upon them. The lower 

 lip of the corolla is jagged the upper slightly notched. It 

 was formerly considered useful in curing wounds, but it is not 

 now employed. 



