HYSSOP. 45 



several from the same root, are erect, shrubby, obsoletely quadran- 

 gular, about two feet in height, with opposite, elongated branches. 

 The leaves are opposite, spreading, sub- sessile, long, lanceolate, 

 acute, entire, minutely ciliated at the margin, sprinkled on both 

 sides with small glandular dots, and of a deep green colour. The 

 flowers are nearly sessile, for the most part turned in one direction, 

 and disposed in whorls in the axils of the upper leaves, forming 

 erect, elongated, leafy-spike, like racemes. The calyx is tubular, 

 funnel-shaped, slightly hairy within, striated, and divided at the 

 limb into five, nearly equal, acute teeth. The corolla is of a blue 

 colour, bilabiate, with a slender tube ; the upper lip small, erect, 

 rounded, emarginate ; lower lip divided into three segments, of 

 which the intermediate one is large, obcordate, spreading, and 

 somewhat crenated. The stamens are didynamous, longer than 

 the corolla, with subulate spreading filaments, tipped with simple 

 linear anthers. The germen is four-parted, and from its centre 

 rises a slender, tubular, violet-coloured style, a little longer than 

 the stamens and terminated by a bifid stigma. The fruit consists 

 of four nuts, enclosed in the calyx, each containing a single 

 globose seed. Plate 27, fig. 1, (a) entire flower, magnified; (b) 

 pistil ; (c) fruit ; (</) nut of the fruit, magnified. 



Hyssop was first cultivated in this country about the year 1548, 

 and is now well known in gardens, being valued not less for its 

 beauty and fragrance when in flower, than for its medicinal quali- 

 ties. It grows wild in many parts of middle and southern Europe, 

 especially^ mountainous situations, but it is probably of Asiatic 

 origin. It flowers from June to August. 



Much diversity of opinion has prevailed as to whether this plant 

 is the esob of the Hebrew writings, and the v<r<roo7ro$ of the Greeks. 

 Dioscorides has left no description of the vctvwkos, apparently 

 considering that it was sufficiently well known ; but the effects attri- 

 buted to it, do not correspond with those of our Hyssop, which is 

 more likely to be the Hyssop spoken of in the Scriptures, as used 

 in the purification enjoined by the Levitical law, and consequently, 

 to the " Hyssop springing out of the wall," alluded to by Solomon. 

 Hasselquist, however, conjectures, that this plant was a minute 

 kind of moss (Gymnostoma truncatulatum) , which he observed 

 growing in vast abundance upon the walls of Jerusalem. If this 

 supposition be correct, the Hyssop spoken of by Solomon could 

 scarcely be the plant mentioned in other parts of the Sacred 



