who, I believe, firft called it 'Tbymus. 
Thzjlamina, you obferve, are four, two 
long and two fhortj therefore it is of 
the Clafs Didynamia, and the feeds be- 
ing naked tells the Order to be Gym- 
nofpermia. The generic character is a 
very fhort one Calych bllablati faux 
wills claufa y and it is fufficiently diftin- 
guifhed from the only other fpecies, in 
thjs kingdom, by its flowers being col- 
lected in a head; thofe of the actws, or 
Bafil Thyme, are verticillate. 
This Thyme, you know, both Greek and 
Latin poets fuppofed the favorite food of 
bees. Virgil therefore mentions it as a pro- 
per herb to be planted near the hives. 
Hac circum Capa verities, et olentla late 
Syrpylla. 
This Syrpyllum of the Romans was the 
fywTAov of the Greeks, derived from E^, 
to creep. Thefe Romans, as Martyn ob- 
ferves, frequently changed the Greek afpi- 
ration into S, from I^TTU forming Jerpo, from 
l| fex, &c. But Virgil, both in his Eclogues 
2nd Georgics, mentions alfo Thymus, which 
JLinnjsus adopts as the name of the genus. 
Dum 
