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Of Wilde Time
The Description. 1 BOth Dioscorides and Pliny make two kindes of Serpillum, that is, of creeping or wilde Time; whereof the first is our common creeping Time, which is so well knowne, that it needeth no description; yet this ye shall understand, that it beareth floures of a purple colour, as every body knoweth. Of which kinde I found another sort, with floures as white as snow, and have planted it in my garden, where it becommeth an herbe of great beauty. 2 This wilde Time that bringeth forth white floures differeth not from the other, but onely in the colour of the floures, whence it may be called Serpillum vulgare flore albo. White floured Wilde Time. 6 Wilde Time of Candy is like unto the other wild Times, saving that his leaves are narrower and longer, and more in number at each joynt. The smell is more aromaticall than any of the others, wherein is the difference. The Place.
The first groweth upon barren hills and untoiled places: the second groweth in Gardens. The white kinde I found at South fleet in Kent. The Time.
They floure from May to the end of Summer.
The Names.
Wild Time is called in Latine, Serpillum, a serpendo, of creeping: in English, wilde Time, Puliall mountaine, Pella Mountaine, running Time, creeping Time, Mother of Time.
AElianus in his ninth booke of his sundry Histories seemeth to number wilde Time among the floures. Dionysius Junior (saith he) comming into the city Locris in Italy, possessed most of the houses of the city, and did strew them with roses, wilde Time, and other such kindes of floures. Yet Virgil in the second Eclog of his Bucolicks doth most manifestly testifie, that wilde Time is an herbe, in these words:
Thestilis for mowers tyr'd with parching heate, Garlicke, wilde Time, strong smelling herbes doth beate.
Out of which place it may be gathered, that common wilde time is the true and right Serpillum, or wilde Time.
The Vertues.
It helpeth against the bitings of any venomous beast, either taken in drinke, or outwardly applied.