Thymum 



Thyme was evidently the chief bee plant, though 

 its season of flowering hardly exceeds a month. It 

 was also used for fumigating the hive (Ge. iv. 241), 

 and as a medicine for its inhabitants (ib. 267). The 

 leaves were also used in cookery, and when it was to 

 be dried for this purpose it was held best to dry it in 

 the shade. Modern authorities agree with this view. 



Writers on Shakespeare's wild thyme frequently 

 quote Virgil, but the two poets have different plants 

 in mind. 



Flower, June. 

 Italian name, Timo. 



Tilia. 



'(apes) pascuntur . . . pinguem tiliam ' (Ge. iv. 183). 

 ' tiliae leves ' (Ge. ii. 449). 



The small-leaved lime (Tilia parvifolia) is native 

 in Rockingham Forest and perhaps in a few other 

 places in southern England. In Italy it is confined 

 to the high ground. The limes which the old 

 Corycian grew at Taranto may have been one of 

 the sub-species, either T. intermedia, the common 

 lime, or T. platyphylla, the broad-leaved lime. 

 Virgil gives the Corycian credit for being success- 

 ful with a hill -land tree at so low an altitude. 

 I take ' pinguem ' to refer to the sticky leaves, as in 

 Juvenal's ' pinguia crura luto ' and Martial's ' pin- 

 guis virga,' a stick plastered with bird-lime. All 

 varieties of the trees seem to be beloved by bees. 



The timber, which Virgil commends for the yoke 

 of the plough, is light, and can be planed smooth : 



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