THY 



THY 



cleft ; ftyle thrcad-fliapcd, cloven a little way down ; ftig- 

 mas two, acute. Peru: none, except the uiialtoa-J calyx. 

 SciJs four. 



Ed". Ch. Calyx nearly cylindric.il, two-lipped, marked 

 on each fide with a hairy prominent line. Style cloven. 



1. Th. fpicata. Spike-flowered Thymbra. Linn. Sp. PI. 

 795. Willd. n. I. Ait. n. i. Sm. l'"l. Gr-.rc. Sibth. 

 t. 546, unpublilhed. (Th. fpicata verior hifpanica ; Barrel, 

 let. 1230. Thymum majus longifolium, &c.; Pluk. Phyt. 

 t. 116. f. 5.) — Flowers fpikcd. Leaves lanceolate. — Na- 

 tive of the Levant, on dry hills. Dr. Sibthorp met with 

 the plant in Crete, Afia Minor, and Greece, and conceived 

 it to be the na-a-unro; o/mo:, or Mountain HyfTop, of Diofco- 

 rides, which is extremely probable. The_y?fm is fhr\ibby, 

 very bufliy, about a foot high, with numerous, upright, 

 fimple, leafy, purphfh, quadrangular branches, whofe op- 

 pofite ildes are often denfely downy, in an alternate manner 

 between the different pairs of leaves, the pubefcence recurved. 

 Leaves oppofite, feflile, crowded, fpreading, acute, entire, 

 about an inch long, fmooth on each fide, befprinkled with 

 refinous dots, and fringed at the margin with copious white 

 hairs. They are accompanied by axillary tufts of fmaller 

 and narrower leaves. Flowers of a fine reddifh purple, in 

 folitary, terminal, denfe, leafy, v/horXe A /pikes , from two to 

 four inches long. Calyx reddifh, aboundmg in effential oil, 

 fmooth and naked, without ribs, except the lateral line at 

 each fide, which is fringed, as well as the teeth, with 

 ftrong white hairs. BraSeas lanceolate, fringed, purplilh. 

 Tube of the corolla twice the length of the calyx, fomewhat 

 downy ; lower lip deflexed, in three obtufe equal fegments, 

 iairy about the throat. The whole herb has the warm pun- 

 gent flavour of Thyme, and the afpeft of Hyffop. 



2. Th. vcrttcillata. Whorl-flowered Thymbra. Linn. 

 Sp. PI. 796. Willd. n. 2. Ait. n. 2. (Hyflbpus mon- 

 tana ; Dalech. Hift. 934 ; not 394, as Willdenow, copy- 

 ing Linnaeus's typographical error, has it.) — Flowers 

 whorled. Leaves linear-lanceolate. — Native of the fouth 

 of Europe. The Jlem is ftirubby, but more flender than 

 the laft, hairy in the fame manner, but more univerfally. 

 Leaves much narrower, dotted and fringed in the fame 

 manner. Flowers axillary, from top to bottom of each 

 branch ; thofe of the principal one fix in each whorl ; thofe 

 of the lateral branches only two. In ftrufture, fize and co- 

 lour they agree with the foregoing, only the calyx has fomc 

 appearance in the dried fpecimen of being more ribbed. Its 

 lateral keels, as well as the teeth, are ftrongly fringed. Nc- 

 verthelefs, the general hue and afpeft of thefe two plants are 

 fo much alike, that there feems great reafon for Linnseus's 

 fufpicion of their being varieties of each other. At the 

 back of the original fpecimen of this laft is the following 

 fynonym. Tragoriganum creticum, majore crafliore afpe- 

 riori foho ; Profp. Alpin. Exot. 79. So confufcd is this 

 old author, that one can hardly tell which of his plates his 

 loofe defcriptions refer to ; but bur plant certainly agrees 

 better with his Tbymhra, t. 80, than with his Tragoriganum, 

 t. 78, though the above fynonym feems to indicate the 

 latter. 



3. Th. ciliata. Capitate-flowered Thymbra. Desfont. 

 Atlant. V. 2. 10. t. 122. Willd. n. 3. — Flowers capitate. 

 Leaves linear. Brafteas ovate. — Found by Desfontaines, on 

 dry hills and uncultivated fpots, near Mafcar, in Algiers. A 

 fmall \ivA\^ Jlirub, fi-om eight to twelve inches high, agree- 

 ing much in habit with the two preceding fpecies ; but the 

 leaives are linear ; while the braBeas are broader and more 

 ovate, as well as the Jpikes much ftiorter, than in the Th. 



fpicata. The leaves are equally fringed in all. Nothing is 

 iiiid, or exprefled in the figiire, of any hairy lateral lines on 



the calyx, the mod important charafter of Thymbra. Having 

 fecn no fpecimen of this fpecies, we cannot judge with cer- 

 tainty refpefting its genus, nor whether it might not rather 

 be referred to Satureia, fee that article ; but we cannot fa- 

 tisfa6torily aflent to the opinion of its learned difcoverer, 

 that thefe genera are not fufliciently diftinft. The calyx in 

 the natural ordf^r to which they belong afl'ords, in many in- 

 ftances, clear, though nice, generic differences. At the fame 

 time we admit that Linna;us is incorreCl in makmg a femi- 

 bifid ftyle, by which muft be undcrftood a ftyle cloven half 

 way down, one of tlie cflcntial marks of a Thymbra. 



Thvmbua, in Gardening, furniflies plants of the under 

 flirubby, exotic kind, among which the fpecies cultivated are 

 the fpiked thymbra (T. fpicata) ; and the whorled thymbra 

 (T. verticiilata). 



Method of Culture. — Thefe plants may be increafcd by 

 feeds, flips, and cuttings. The feeds ftiould be fown in the 

 early fpring in a warm border, and fheltered from bad wea- 

 ther by glaffcs ; or, which is better, in pots filled with 

 light mould, and placed in a mild hot-bed : when the plants 

 have attained fome growth, they fhouldbe fet out or removed 

 into feparate pots. 



The flips and cuttings fliould be planted out in the fpring 

 and fummer, and when well rooted, removed where they are 

 to grow : they alfo fometimes fucceed by bottom offsets, 

 planted out as above. 



They afford variety among other potted greenhoufe 

 plants ; and require the proteftion of fuch houies during the 

 winter feafon, in this climate, in almoft all fituations and 

 places. 



THYMBRiEUS Mons, in Ancient Geography, a moun- 

 tain of Afia Minor, in the Troade ; from which, according 

 to Feftus, Apollo was denominated Thymbrian. 



THYMBRIA, a place of Ionia, four ftadia E.S.E. of 

 Myus. The cavern Charonium was near Tymbria, which wa« 

 thought to be one of the mouths of Hell, becaufe from it 

 iffued peftilential vapours. 



THYMBRIUM, a town of Afia, in Phrygia, at the 

 diftance of twelve parafangas from Cayftropedium. At this 

 place was a fountaui, called the fountain of Midas, king of 

 Phrygia. 



THYME, in Botany. See Thymus. 



In the Materia Medica, the common garden thyme is a 

 moderately warm pungent aromatic. To water it imparts by 

 infufion its agreeable fmell, with a weak taft,e and yellowifh or 

 brown colour ; in diftillation, it gives over an effential oil, in 

 the quantity of about an ounce from thirty pounds of the 

 herb in flower, of a gold yellow colour if diftilled by a 

 gentle fire, of a deep browniih-red if by a ftrong one, of a 

 penetrating fmell like that of the thyme itfelf, but lefs grate- 

 ful, and in tafte exceedingly hot and fiery : the remaining 

 decoftion, infpiffated, leaves a bitterifh, roughilh, fubfaline 

 extraft. The aftive matter, which by water is only par- 

 tially diffolved, is by reftified fpirit difTolved completely, 

 though the tinclure difcovers lefs of the fmell of thyme than 

 the watery infufion ; and the fpirit brings over, in diftillation, 

 a part of its flavoiu-, leaving an extraft of a weak fmell, and 

 of a penetrating camphorated pungency. Murray has ob- 

 ferved, that this plant feems afilually to contain a fpecies of 

 camphor. 



The virtues of thyme, according to Bergius, are refolvent, 

 emmenagogue, diuretic, tonic, and ftomachic. As agreeing, 

 fays Woodville, in common with the natural order of verti- 

 cillatae, its aromatic qualities may be found equally ufeful in 

 fome of thofe complaints for which lavender, fage, refemary, 

 occ. are ufually employed. 



TYie fcrpyllum, or mother of thyme, is an elegant aromatic 

 4 G i plant, 



