British collections; and all are propagated from 
cuttings, and require a little winter protection. 
THYME,—botanically Thymus. A genus of 
ornamental, evergreen undershrubs, of the labiate 
order. Three species grow wild in Britain, and 
at least 30 have been introduced from Conti- 
nental Hurope and Northern Africa. Nine or 
ten of the species are creeping or procumbent, 
and all the others are erect; a small number 
have white, striped, or red flowers, and all the 
others have purple flowers; a few are 12 or 15 
inches high, and the rest vary in height from 3 
to 10 inches; five or six require a little winter 
protection, and all the others are quite hardy; 
two or three require a soil of rich mould, and 
the rest thrive in any common soil or in sandy 
loam; some are most readily propagated from 
seeds or by radical division, and the rest are pro- 
pagated from cuttings; one is eultivated for 
culinary and medicinal purposes, and the others 
are merely or principally ornamental, and all 
are more or less fragrant, aromatic, and pungent. 
The wild thyme, or mother of thyme, Thymus 
serpyllum, abounds on the heaths and the dry 
mountainous pastures of many parts of Britain. 
It has a procumbent habit, and a height of about 
3 inches, and blooms from June till August. The 
normal plant has purple flowers and no fragrance ; 
but one variety, called the white-flowered, has 
white flowers,—another, called the shrubby, has 
pale red flowers,—another, called the variegated, 
has variegated leaves,—another, called the nar- 
row-leaved, has an odour similar to that of the 
leaves of the walnut-tree,—and another, called 
the lemon, emits an agreeable aromatic fragrance 
similar to that of lemons. Several of the varie- 
ties are allowed a place in flower-gardens, on ac- 
count of their beauty or fragrance; and the 
lemon one requires always to be propagated from 
slips and cuttings. Pastures and moorlands 
overrun with wild thyme have long and gene- 
rally been known to produce a superior flavour 
of mutton and venison ; but whether they owe 
their excellency to the sheep and deer eating the 
thyme itself, or to their eating the peculiar com- 
binations of herbage with which it is associated, 
or to the influence of the qualities of soil and 
climate which render it luxuriant, is matter of 
dispute. 
The outdrawn thyme, Thymus exserens, is a 
native of the heaths and mountainous pastures 
of Britain, of very similar habit and height and 
time of blooming to the wild species.—The woolly 
thyme, Thymus lanuginosus, is a native of some 
parts of Scotland, and also grows procumbently, 
_ and carries purple flowers from June till August. 
The common or garden or culinary thyme, 
Thymus vulgaris, is a native of the South of Eu- 
rope, and was introduced to Britain about the 
middle of the 16th century. It has an upright 
habit, and a height of about a foot, and carries 
purple flowers from May till August; and it 
comprises one variety with comparatively broad 
TIARELLA. 
leaves, another with variegated leaves, and ano- 
ther with yellowish colour and a lemon-scented 
odour. The variegated is cultivated almost solely 
for sake of its ornamental foliage; but the other 
varieties are cultivated for sake of at once the 
ornateness of their appearance, the pleasantness 
of their living fragrance, the essential oil which 
they yield by distillation, the medicinal aroma- 
tic uses of their herbage and oil, and various 
culinary and flavouring uses of their tops. 
Thyme, though strictly a perennial, becomes 
stunted after three or four years, and requires, 
at comparatively short intervals, to be repro- 
duced. A light, dry, and rather poor soil is most 
conducive to its best condition; and a rich or a 
moist soil renders it luxuriant, but occasions it 
to be deficient in fragrance, and greatly tends to 
make it perish in winter. The situation cannot 
be too open. The plant may be propagated 
either from top-slips or parted roots in spring, 
planted 6 or 12 inches asunder, or from seed 
sown in April, broadcast or in drills; and the 
plantlets from seed may either be transplanted 
in summer or allowed to remain in the drills,— 
and those transplanted must be occasionally 
watered till they become established. In au- 
tumn, decayed stems and branches should be | 
cleared away, and a little fresh soil scattered 
among the old plants. Young plantlets of thyme 
may be planted close along the margin of a bor- 
der to serve as an edging. 
THYMELAA. See Oxtve (Wi). 
THYSANOTUS. A genus of ornamental, her- 
baceous, Australian plants, of the asphodel order. | 
The name signifies “fringed,” and alludes to a 
beautiful fringe upon the three inner sepals. 
Seven or eight species—some tuberous-rooted, 
others fibrous-rooted, and most purple-flowered 
and from 6 to 15 inches high,—have been intro- 
duced to the greenhouses of Britain. The stem 
and branches of one, 7’. ¢ntricatus, are very curi- 
ously and complexly interwoven; the foliage of 
some is scanty, yet harmonizes well enough with 
the inflorescence; and the bloom of several, par- 
ticularly of 7. proliferus, is very abundant, while 
that of most remarkably combines quiet beauty 
with striking singularity. One of the finest in 
appearance, as also one of the earliest in bloom, 
is 7”. tuberosus, about a foot high, and introduced 
in 1825. Most Jove a soil of sandy peat, and are | 
propagated from offsets. 
THYSSELINUM. See Minx-Parsury. 
TIARELLA. A genus of ornamental, exotic, 
herbaceous plants, of the saxifrage family. The 
name signifies “a little diadem,” and alludes to 
a sort of mitred structure in the capsule. The 
heart-leaved species, 7”. cordzfolia, is a native of 
North America, and was introduced to Britain 
in the former part of last century. It is a hardy 
evergreen. Its root is fibrous, creeping, and repro- 
ductive; its leaves are numerous, heart-shaped, 
unequally indented, and of a light green colour, 
‘and come out on slender footstalks of about 3 
