1028 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



A small, slender much-branched shrub, very aromatic, hairy 

 more or less, or glabrous, procumbent or ascending, often 

 tufted, usually about 6-1 2in. Root-stock woody. Leaves usually 

 nearly sessile, i-Jin., gland-dotted, ovate-oblong, entire obtuse. 

 Whorls capitate. Flowers small, purple, sometimes one-sexual ; 

 males largest, in small whorls crowded in short terminal spikes. 

 Calyx hair\ r , gland-dotted, 2-lipped, mouth hairy within ; upper 

 lip broad, 3-toothed, lower 2-parted, segments linear. Calyx- 

 teeth ciliate. Corolla i-Jin., purple, very variable. Corolla- 

 tube as long as the Calyx ; limb 2-lipped, upper-lip nearly 

 erect, flat notched, lower spreading, 3-lobed. Stamens 4, nearly 

 equal, protruding. Nutlets nearly smooth. 



Uses : — On the Chenab, in the Punjab, the seeds are given 

 as a vermifuge (Stewart). Used by the Hakims in weak vision, 

 complaints of stomach and liver, suppression of urine and mens- 

 truation (Honnigberger). 



The oil is sometimes applied as a remedy in toothache. In 

 France a decoction of the plant has been used to cure the itch 

 and some other skin disorders. Linnaeus recommends it for 

 curing headache and the effects of intoxication (Sowerby's 

 English Botany). 



Chemical composition.— The volatile oil of Thymus Serpylliim, Linn., ac- 

 cording to E. Buri (1879), contains two phenols which do not congeal at 

 10° C, and of which one imparts a yellowish-green colour to ferric chloride, 

 and yields a sulphonic acid, the salts of which, like the thymol sulphonates, 

 produce with ferric salts and intense blue colour. Jahns (1880) reported 

 also the presence of a little thymol and carvacrol. Messrs. Schimmel & Co. 

 (Report, April 1891) obtained by distillation of the leaves and stalks 0'3 

 per cent, of an oil having a very pleasant melissa-like aroma with a slight 

 soupcon of thyme. Its specific gravity at 15° C. was 0917 (Pharmacogr. Ind.). 



991. Eyssopus officinalis, Linn., h.f.b.i. iv. 649. 



Vern. :— Zufah yabis (Arab, and Pers.). "The drug is 

 generally attributed to Ryssopus officinalis, but this cannot 

 be correct, as the flowers are in oblong spikes. It is imported 

 from Persia " (Pharmacogr. Ind. III. 116). 



Habitat :— Western Himalaya, from Kashmir to Kumaon. 



An undershrub, usually glabrous. Stem below branched, 

 woody l-2ft., erect or diffuse. Leaves sessile, oblong linear or 



