44 THE BOOK OF HERBS 



was the thyme of the ancients. The affection of bees 

 for thyme has often been noticed, and the " fine flavour 

 to the honey of Mount Hymettus " ^ is said to be due to 

 this plant. Evelyn speaks of it as having " a most agree- 

 able odor," and a "considerable quantity being frequently, 

 by the Hollanders, brought from Maltha, and other 

 places in the Streights, who sell it at home, and in 

 Flanders for strewing amongst the Sallets and Ragouts ; 

 and call it All-Sauce." Gerarde divides the garden thyme 

 {T. ■uulgarii) and Wild Thyme or Mother of Thyme 

 It. serpyllum) into two chapters, but Parkinson takes 

 them together and describes eleven kinds, including 

 Lemmon Thyme, which has the " sent of a Pomecitron 

 or Lemmon"; and " Guilded or embrodered Tyme," 

 whose leaves have "a variable mixture of green and 

 yellow." Abercrombie's information is always given in 

 a concentrated form. " An ever-green, sweet-scented, 

 fine-flavoured, aromatic, under-shrub, young tops used 

 for various kitchen purposes." 



Viper's Grass or Scorzonera {Scorzonera Hispanica). 



The virtues of this herb were known, but not much 

 regarded, before " Monardus,^ a famous physician in 

 Sivell," published a book in which was " set downe that 

 a Moore, a bond-slave, did help those that were bitten 

 of that venomous beast or Viper . . . which they of 

 Catalonia, where they breed in abundance, call in their 

 language Escuersos (from whence Scorsonera is derived), 

 with the juice of the herb, and the root given them to 

 eate," and states that this would effect a cure when other 

 well-authorised remedies failed. " The rootes hereof, 

 being preserved with sugar, as I have done often, doe eate 

 almost as delicate as the Eringus roote." Evelyn is loud 

 in its praise. It is "a very sweete and pleasant Sallet, 



' Hogg, " The Vegetable Kingdom and its Products." ^ Parkinson. 



