86 THE ASSOCIATIONS OF FLOWERS 
of the flowers. The plants contained in it are^ too, very 
similar in their properties. Not one of them is of an un- 
wholesome nature, and they are throughout characterised 
by a fragrant volatile oil, and by their stomachic and 
cordial virtues. The oil which they yield contains so 
great a portion of camphor as to have suggested the pro- 
priety of cultivating some of these plants for the produc- 
tion of that drug. Some of them are to be found in every 
garden and under every hedge. Who does not know the 
sweet wild thyme of our meadows? Who has not enjoyed 
the delicious odour which has arisen as he walked over 
the thyray grass, or marked how the bees hovered about 
it, if they thought it more fragrant than any of the 
neighbouring plants ? How often does the summer wan- 
derer lie down on the thyme-covered bank to enjoy the 
pure delights of the scented air, and rise from it to join 
with the good man who thanked his God for his pleasant 
dreams 1 When the ancients wished to express their sense 
of the Attic elegance of the style of their writers, they 
said that they smelt of thyme; and still is the wild thyme 
growing luxuriantly over mossy banks, and in shady glens 
of Greece, as richly as it clusters on the carpet of our own 
mountains and plains. 
Another common plant of the labiate kind, which often 
blooms under the hedges, its spike of purple flowers bear- 
ing somewhat the appearance of the dead nettle, is the 
betony (Betonica officinalis). This plant, if eaten while 
fresh, will produce intoxication. Then there is the sweet- 
marjoram, whose name (Origanum) signifies the joy of the 
mountain ; the pretty ground-ivy (Glechoma hederacea), 
which was used in ale until hops were introduced into 
this country; the cat-mint, and many others equally com- 
mon. Cats are very fond of the latter plant; but there 
is an old legend that they will destroy it if cultivated; 
thus ti\e proverb : 
“ If you set it, 
Cats won’t eat it.” 
A common labiate plant, the water horehound (Lyco- 
pus Europa6us), which grows on river-banks, and bears 
white flowers and crumpled leaves, received its old name 
