304 STRAITS OF THERMOPYLAE. 
YIII. 
^^jj^- above the level of the marshy plain of Mola and 
the sea. The hills around us were covered 
with trees ; and we found some rare plants 
growing beneath them, both among the rocks, 
and over the rest of this narrow valley'. We 
(l) The following Note contains the Plants we collected in the 
Defile of Thermopylae : 
Common Phillyrea— Phillyrea media, Linn. 
Scarlet Oak — Quercus coccifera, Linn. 
Rou°:h Bindweed — Smilex aspera, Linn. 
Common Rue — Ruta graveolens, Linn. 
Ground Germander — Teticrium Oiamadrys, Linn. 
Common Chick-Pea — (Jicer arietinum, Linn. 
Grass-leaved Iris — Iris graminea, Liun. 
Common Olive — Oka Europcea, Linn. 
Heath-leaved St. John's Wort, supposed to be the Yiopis of 
Dioscorides — Hypericum, Cons, Linn. 
Some of these plants were gathered at the Hot Springs in the narrowest 
part of the Pass, close to the Via Militaris. 
Here we also found a very aromatic little shrub, branching almost 
from the ground, the younger branches quadrangular, and rough, with 
short hairs pointing downwards ; the leaves linear, very blunt, a little 
channelled above, closely pierced on both sides with little concave 
dots, and ciliated with a few strong bristles at the edges, and disposed 
close to each other in four rows on the small branches, the large ones 
being always leafless : as the leaves grow older, many of their cilias 
fall off, and they appear nearly naked. The inflorescence is terminal 
in a kind of spike an inch and a half long, and composed of about five 
whorls of flowers, the uppermost of which are so close as to touch each 
other, but the undermost gradually a little more distant : the bracts 
are lanceolate and ciliated at the edges, and extend beyond the whorls, 
but fall off soon after the season of flowering : the calyx is bilabiate, 
and a little compressed, with two prominent ciliated edges, and sparkles 
with numerous little fiery-coloured dots ; the mouth bilabiate, ciliated, 
and thickly set with long white hairs ; the upper lip divided to the base, 
into two very narrow segments ; the upper lip tridentale ; the seeds 
four , 
