HERBS USED IN THE PRESENT TIME 43 



Here, dancing feet fall still, 

 Here, where wild thyme and sea-pinks brave wild weather. 



N. Hopper. 

 O ! Cupid was that saucy boy, 

 Who furrows deeply drew. 

 He broke soil, destroyed the soil 

 Of wild thyme wet with dew. 

 Before his feet, the field was sweet 

 With flowers and grasses green, 

 Behind, turn'd down, and bare and brown 

 By Cupid's coulter keen. 



Devonshire Songs. 



"Among the Greeks, thyme denoted graceful elegance 

 of the Attic style," and was besides an emblem of 

 activity. " ' To smell of Thyme ' was therefore an 

 expression of praise, applied to those whose style was 

 admirable" (Folkard). In the days of chivalry, when 

 activity was a virtue very highly rated, ladies used " to 

 embroider their knightly lovers' scarves with the figure 

 of a bee hovering about a sprig of thyme." ^ In the 

 south of France wild thyme or Ferigoule is a symbol of 

 advanced Republicanism, and tufts of it were sent with 

 the summons to a meeting to members of a society 

 holding those views. Gerarde, in his writings, plainly 

 shows that he and his contemporaries did not indis- 

 criminately call all plants " herbs," but distinguished 

 them with thought and care. " ^lianus seemeth to 

 number wild time among the floures. Dionysius Junior 

 (saith he) comming into the city Locris in Italy, pos- 

 sessed most of the houses of the city, and did strew them 

 ^ with roses, wild time and other such kinds of floures. 

 Yet Virgil, in the Second Eclogue of his Bucolicks doth 

 most manifestly testifie that wilde Time is an herbe." 

 Here he translates : — 



Thestilis, for mower's tyr'd with parching heate, 

 Garlike, wild Time, strong smelling herbs doth beate. 



Modern opinion confirms the view that Thymus capitatus 



1 " Flora Symbolica.'' Ingram. 



