DIDYNAMIA— GYMNOSPERMIA. Thymus. 107 



Perennial. July, August. 



Root creeping. Herb a foot high, with a warm aromatic flavour, 

 somewhat like that of Wild Thyme. Stems purplish, leafy, 

 clothed unequally with short recurved hairs ; branched and pa- 

 nicled at the summit. Leaver deflexed, bright green, entire or 

 slightly serrated, minutely fringed, besprinkled with resinous 

 dots. Fl. light purple, in dense, convex tufts, with involucral 

 leaves of a darker purple, rather longer than the calyx, which 

 last is tubular, smooth, covered with resinous dots, and closed 

 at the mouth with dense, prominent, very conspicuous, white 

 hairs ; the margin in 5 erect, broadish, nearly equal, coloured 

 teeth. 



The ca/(/i' differs remarkably in different species of this genus, con- 

 sisting in some of an undivided unilateral leaf, without teeth j 

 while in others it is, more or less equally, five-toothed, or two- 

 lipped. The iiwolucrum is uniform and constant in all. 



0. Onites of Dillenius in Ray's Synopsis, not that of Linnaeus, ap- 

 pears to have been some variety of the vulgare, which no person 

 has been able to ascertain since the time of Mr. Dale. 



299. THYMUS. Thyme, or CalatTiint. 



Linn. Gen. 297. Juss. 1 1.5. Fl. Br. 639. Tourn. t. 93. Lam. t.5\2. 

 Acinos. Dill. Gen. 1 04. t. A. 



Cal. tubular, many-ribbed, rather tumid underneath at the 

 base, two-hpped, closed at the thi'oat with convero-ino- 

 hairs ; upper lip broadest, flat, erect, witli 3 sharp teeth ; 

 lower of 2 longer, equal, narrower, awl-shaped teeth. 

 Cor. ringent ; tube as long as the calyx ,• throat short, 

 but little dilated ; upper lip shortest, flat, erect, obtuse, 

 with a small notch; lower longer and broader, spreadino-, 

 in 3 deep obtuse lobes, the middle one broadest. Filam. 

 shorter than the corolla, slender, incurved. Anth. di- 

 stinctly two-lobed. Germ, four-cleft. Style thread-shaped. 

 Stigma in 2 acute segments. Seeds 4, small, roundish, in 

 the bottom of the closed calyx. 



Aromatic, pungent, branched, somewhat shrubby, but 

 often diffuse and of humble growth ; in some instances 

 annual. Leaves small, stalked, ovate, rarely heart- 

 shaped, marked with resinous dots, more or less frino-ed, 

 hairy, or woolly. Fl. axillary ; or crowded into terminal 

 heads, red, purplish, or white. 



\. T. Serpijlbim. Wild Thyme. 



Flowers in small heads. Stems recumbent. Leaves flat 

 ovate, obtuse, entire ; fringed at their base. 



