CHAP. 31.—TWO VARIETIES OF THYME. PLANTS PRODUCED FROM BLOSSOMS AND NOT FROM SEED.
There are also as many varieties of thyme[2046] employed, the one white, the other dark:[2047] it flowers about the summer solstice, when the bees cull from it. From this plant a sort of augury is derived, as to how the honey is likely to turn out: for the bee-keepers have reason to look for a large crop when the thyme blossoms in considerable abundance. Thyme receives great injury from showers of rain, and is very apt to shed its blossom. The seed of thyme is so minute[2048] as to be imperceptible, and yet that of origanum, which is also extremely minute, does not escape the sight. But what matters it that Nature has thus concealed it from our view? For we have reason to conclude that it exists in the flower itself; which, when sown in the ground, gives birth to the plant—what is there, in fact, that the industry of man has left untried?
The honey of Attica is generally looked upon as the best in all the world; for which reason it is that the thyme of that country has been transplanted, being reproduced, as already stated, with the greatest difficulty, from the blossom. But there is also another peculiarity in the nature of the thyme of Attica, which has greatly tended to frustrate these attempts—it will never live except in the vicinity of breezes from the sea. In former times, it was the general belief that this is the case with all kinds of thyme, and that this is the reason why it does not grow in Arcadia:[2049] at a period when it was universally supposed, too, that the olive never grows beyond three hundred stadia[2050] from the sea. But, at the present day, we know for certain that in the province of Gallia Narbonensis the Stony Plains[2051] are quite overgrown with thyme; this being, in fact, the only source of revenue to those parts, thousands of sheep[2052] being brought thither from distant countries to browse upon the plant.
CHAP. 32.—CONYZA.
There are two varieties of conyza, also, employed in making chaplets, the male[2053] plant and the female. The difference consists in the leaves, those of the female plant being thinner, more tapering, and narrower, and those of the male being of an imbricated shape, the plant having a greater number of branches. The blossom, too, of the male plant is more vivid than that of the female: in both kinds it is late in making its appearance, not till after the rising of Arcturus.
The smell of the male conyza is more powerful than that of the female plant: the latter, however, is of a more penetrating nature, for which reason it is that the female plant is held in higher esteem for the treatment of the bites of animals. The leaves of the female plant have exactly the smell of honey; and the root of the male has received the name of “libanotis” from some: we have already made mention[2054] of it on a previous occasion.
CHAP. 33.—THE FLOWER OF JOVE. THE HEMEROCALLES. THE HELENIUM. THE PHLOX. PLANTS IN WHICH THE BRANCHES AND ROOTS ARE ODORIFEROUS.
Of the following plants, too, it is only the leaves that are employed for chaplets—the flower of Jove,[2055] the amaracus, the hemerocalles,[2056] the abrotonum, the helenium,[2057] sisymbrium,[2058] and wild thyme, all of them ligneous plants, growing in a manner similar to the rose. The flower of Jove is pleasing only for its colours, being quite inodorous; which is the case also with the plant known by the Greek name of “phlox.”[2059] All the plants, too, which we have just mentioned are odoriferous, both in the branches and the leaves, with the sole exception of wild thyme.[2060] The helenium is said to have had its origin in the tears of Helen, and hence it is that the kind grown in the island of Helena[2061] is so highly esteemed. It is a shrub which throws out its tiny branches along the ground, some nine inches in length, with a leaf very similar to that of wild thyme.
CHAP. 34.—THE ABROTONUM. THE ADONIUM: TWO VARIETIES OF IT. PLANTS WHICH REPRODUCE THEMSELVES. THE LEUCANTHEMUM.
The flower of the abrotonum,[2062] which makes its appearance in summer, has a powerful but agreeable smell; it is of a bright golden colour. Left to range at large, it reproduces itself by layers from the tops of the branches: but when it is propagated by the hand of man, it is better to grow it from the seed than from the roots or slips, though even from the seed it is not grown without considerable trouble. The young plants are transplanted in summer, which is the case also with the adonium.[2063] They are both of them plants of a very chilly nature, though, at the same time, they are apt to receive injury if too much exposed to the sun: when, however, they have gained sufficient strength, they throw out branches like those of rue.