Note 835 — BOOK XXV. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE WILD PLANTS. (continued 2)

There has been much discussion on the identification of the Hyssopum of the ancients, their descriptions varying very considerably. It has been suggested that that of the Egyptians was the Origanum Ægyptianum; that of the Hebrews, the Origanum Syriacum; that of Dioscorides, the Origanum Smyrnæum; and that of the other Greek writers, the Teuerium pseudo-hyssopus, or else the Thymbra verticillata and spicata. Fée is inclined to identify that here mentioned by Pliny with the Thymbra spicata of Linnæus, and the Garden hyssop of Dioscorides, with the Hyssopus officinalis of Linnæus. Littré states, however, that this last is a stranger to Greece, and that M. Fräas (Synopsis, p. 182) identifies the hyssop of Dioscorides with the Origanum Smyrnæum or Syriacum.