It is said to be governed by Mercury (Culpepper) and was supposed to belong to the satyrs. The summer savory is chiefly of two kinds—_S. Hortensis_, the summer savory, and _S. Montana_, the winter savory. Both kinds are natives of Southern Europe. Savory is mentioned in the Old Testament (Genesis, Chap. XXVII, 4th verse): “And make me savoury meet such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, that my soul may bless thee before I die.” Savory was probably introduced into Britain by the Romans, as we find it spoken of in a Latin treatise, “Husbandrie of Pallodius,” at the fifteenth century, translated about 1420. It is a common herbaceous plant, from ten inches to one foot high, being half shrubby, with numerous stalks, which are very hard and woody near the bottom. The leaves are narrow, oblong or linear or lanceolate, entire, acute at the end, with resinous dots and short axillary, standing two at each joint, with a quantity of young ones in their axils. The flowers, which grow on the upper part of the stalk among the leaves, are white with a tinge of blue or red. The whole plant of the common summer savory (_S. Hortensis_), as our cultivated garden herb is known, has an agreeable pungent taste and aromatic odor, and is analogous to those of thyme (_thymus_), differing from it in the regular five-toothed or fine-cleft calyx and having the stamens bent together into an arch under the upper lip of the corolla, both being in common use as a seasoning in cooking, either fresh or dried, for flavoring dishes, and especially for flavoring beans, and is cultivated for these culinary purposes in Europe and America. Its tea is used as a remedy for colic and as a cathartic. Winter savory (_S. Montana_) is used in the same way as the summer savory. [Illustration: THYME 1 Plant 2 Root 3 Leaf 4, 5 Stamens 6 Fruit 7 Seed 8 Stamen 9 Seed] THYME Garden thyme (_Thymus vulgaris_). French, _Thym_; German, _Thyman_.