55. Chap. 55.-Wild Thyme; Sisymbrium.

CHAP. 55.—WILD THYME; SISYMBRIUM.

Most mountains abound with wild thyme and sisymbriurm, those of Thrace, for example, where[1] branches of these wild plants are torn up and brought away for planting, So, too. the people of Sicyon seek for wild thyme on their mountains, and the Athenians on the slopes of Hymettus. Sisymlbrium, too, is planted in a similar manner; it grows to the greatest perfection upon the walls of wells, and around fish preserves and ponds.[2]

1. Hardouin, from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vi. c. 7, suggests a reading, "whence the streams bring down branches of them torn off, and so plant them."

2. The plants, Fée says, that we find in these localities, are nearly always ferns, or else Marchantia, or mosses of the genus Hypnum. Fée queries whether one of these may not have been the sisymbrium of Pliny. Water-cresses, again, have been suggested.