According to the Greek myth a young man named Amarakos was employed in the household of the King of Cyprus. One day when he was carrying a vase of perfumes he dropped it, and he was so much humiliated by his carelessness that he fell and lost consciousness. The gods then changed him into the sweet herb _amarakos_, or _amaracus_, which is the Greek name for this plant. Rapin thought it owed its existence to Venus: And tho' Sweet Marjoram will your garden paint With no gay colors, yet preserve the plant, Whose fragrance will invite your kind regard When her known virtues have her worth declared: On Simois' shore fair Venus raised the plant, Which from the Goddess' touch derived her scent. THYME (_Thymus Serpyllum_). Thyme has always been appreciated by those who delight in aromatic perfume. It was one of those plants that Lord Bacon said were so delicious when trodden upon and crushed. Thyme was the symbol for sweetness in Elizabethan days. And sweet thyme true was a favorite expression. "Sweet thyme true" occurs in connection with roses, "maiden pinks," and daisies in the song in "The Two Noble Kinsmen."[79] [79] Act I, Scene I. Fairies were thought to be particularly fond of thyme, and that is one reason why Shakespeare covered the bank where _Titania_ was wont to sleep with wild thyme. The other reason was that he chose the sweetest flowers for perfume for the canopy and couch of the Fairy Queen: musk-roses, eglantine, honeysuckle, violets, and wild thyme mingling the most delicious of scents. The word comes from the Greek and Latin _thymum_. Thyme covered Mount Hymettus and gave to the honey produced there a particularly delicious aromatic flavor. The "honey of Mount Hymettus" became a proverb. Hybla in Sicily was no less famed for its thyme, and, consequently, its honey. Thyme is especially a "bee-plant"; and those who would see their gardens full of bees would do well to plant thyme with lavish hand. Ladies used to embroider a bee hovering over a sprig of thyme on the scarves they gave to their lovers--a symbol of action and honor. Thyme, too, was supposed to renew the spirits of man and beast and it was deemed a powerful antidote against melancholy. Turning to our old friend, Parkinson, we find that "The ordinary garden Thyme (_Thymus vulgatius sive durius_) is a small, low, woody plant with brittle branches and small, hard, green leaves, as every one knoweth, having small white purplish flowers standing round about the tops of the stalks. The seed is small and brown, darker than Marjoram. The root is woody and abideth well divers Winters. [Illustration: SHAKESPEARE GARDEN, VAN CORTLANDT HOUSE, VAN CORTLANDT PARK, COLONIAL DAMES OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK] [Illustration: SHAKESPEARE GARDEN, VAN CORTLANDT HOUSE, VAN CORTLANDT PARK, COLONIAL DAMES OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK]