THE DEAD-NETTLE FAMILY 
IOI 
shaped (ovate), pointed, entire or slightly toothed. The whole plant has a pleasant aromatic scent 
and flavour, and is still cultivated as a pot-herb. It was formerly considered valuable in medicine, 
and is still dried by many country-folk who use it to make marjorum tea. \Plate 35. 
Common. In hedges, dry bushy places, and waysides, especially in chalk and limestone 
districts; throughout England and Ireland, but more rare in Scotland. July — September. 
Perennial. 
XI. THYME. (THYMUS. Linn.) — Flowers lilac, rosy, or white, in clusters, distant, or crowded 
together into heads, or in looser spikes. Calyx of 5 sepals, united into a tube which has from 
10 to 13 ribs, and dividing into 2 lips (bilabiate), the upper of 3 short broad teeth and the lower 
of 2 narrow pointed teeth, inserted below the seedcase (inferior) ; corolla of 5 petals united 
into a tube and separating into 2 lips (bilabiate), the upper lip notched, erect and not arched, 
and the lower 3-lobed, inserted below the seedcase (hypogynous) ; stamens 4, in unequal pairs 
(didynamous), diverging and protruding, inserted on the corolla-tube (epi-petalous) ; carpels 2, 
united into a 4-celled seedcase and a long style divided at the apex into 2 stigmas ; fruit of 4 little 
nuts (cocca). Small, much branched, aromatic herbs or undershrubs, with small entire opposite 
leaves which in foreign species often have their margins rolled back (revolute). 
(1) Mountain Thyme. (Thymus Serpyl'lum.) — Flowers in dense terminal heads; upper 
corolla-lip oblong ; stems rooting. 
(2) Heath Thyme. (Thymus ChamEedrys.) — Flowers with several flower whorls below 
terminal head ; upper corolla-lip short and broad ; stems not rooting. 
1. Mountain Thyme. (Thymus Serpyl'lum. Linn.)— As just described. The small 
purplish-rose-coloured flowers are crowded into a head terminating the stem, sometimes having 
one circle of flowers below ; the upper corolla-lip is oblong ; the stems are procumbent, rooting, 
wiry, slender, very much branched, the leaves of the erect flowering stems forming a cushion 
fringed with the slender trailing barren shoots which the following year produce erect flowering 
stems ; the leaves are oblong or egg-shaped (ovate), usually fringed with long white hairs. The 
whole plant is sometimes smooth, but generally more or less covered with white woolly hairs, and 
is fragrant and aromatic. [ Plate 35. 
Common. On dry heaths, banks, and mountain-sides ; generally distributed throughout England, 
Scotland, and Ireland. June — August. Perennial. 
2. Heath Thyme. (Thymus Chamsedrys. Fr.) — A very similar species, differing in the 
flowering stems usually having several separate circles (whorls) of flowers below the terminal head ; 
in the upper lip of the corolla being short and broad ; and in the stems being erect, not rooting, 
and the leaves all broadly oblong. 
Not common. On heaths, banks, &c., especially on chalky soils ; in England, Scotland, and 
Ireland. June — September. Perennial. 
XII. WILD BASIL. (CLINOPODIUM. Linn.) — Flowers in dense, many-flowered, shortly 
stalked clusters (cymes) in the axils of the leaves, with numerous long bristly bracts forming a kind 
of involucre. Calyx of 5 sepals, united into a curved tube with 13 ribs, and separating into 2 lips 
(bilabiate), the upper having 3 and the lower 2 teeth, inserted below the seedcase (inferior) ; 
corolla of 5 petals, united into an almost straight tube and separating into 2 lips (bilabiate), the 
upper erect, scarcely arched, and the lower spreading and 3-lobed, inserted below the seedcase 
(hypogynous) ; stamens 4, in unequal pairs (didynamous), included in the upper lip of the corolla, 
each pair of anthers approaching one another, inserted on the corolla-tube (epi-petalous) ; 
