1028 
INDIAN MBDICINAI. PLANTS. 
A small, slender much-branched shrub, very aromatic, hairy 
more or less, or glabrous, procumbent or ascending, often 
tufted, usually about 6-12iu. Rootstock \yoody. Leaves usually 
nearly sessile, 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 hairy, gland-dotted, 2-lipped, mouth hairy within ; upper 
lip broad, 3-toothed, lower 2-parted, segments linear. Calyx- 
teeth ciliate. Corolla £-£in., 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. Linnams recommends it for 
curing headache and the effects of intoxication (Sowerby’s 
English Botany). 
Chemical composition .— The volatile oil of Thymus Serpyllum, 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 snlphonates, 
produce with ferric salts and intense bine 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 0’8 
percent, of an oil having a very pleasant melissa-like aroma with a slight 
sonpcon of thyme. Its specific gravity at 15° C. was 0 917 (Pharmacogr. Ind.). 
991 . Hyssopas officinalis, Linn., H.F.B.I. iv. 649 . 
Vern. : — Zufah yabis (Arab, and Pers.). “The drug is 
generally attributed to Hyssopvs 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 
