TEUCRIUM, TREE GERMANDER, a genus of the gymnosperma order, belonging to the didynamia class of plants.
There are many species; of which the most remarkable are, 1. The flavum, yellow shrubby teucrium, commonly called tree germander; rising with erect shrubby stalks and branches, only a foot and a half or two feet high; having small heart-shaped, obusely serrated, foot-stalked leaves, hoary underneath, with the floral leaves concave and entire; and numerous flowers by threes, in whorls, along the upper part of the branches, of different colours in the varieties. This shrub is durable in root, stem, and branches, foliated most part of the year, and produces flowers ornamentally in July, succeeded by ripe seed in autumn. It is an exotic from Spain and Italy, long since introduced into our gardens; formerly kept as a green-house plant, but now is sufficiently naturalized to this climate to succeed in the open air all the year. 2. The scordium, or common water-germander, hath creeping perennial roots, sending up many square, procumbent, or trailing stalks, branching diffusely; oblong, indented, serrated, close-fitting, opposite leaves; and small redish flowers, generally two together, from the sides of the stalks and branches, in July and August. This is a medicinal herb, and smells strongly of garlic. It grows naturally in marshy places, in the Isle of Ely and other parts of England, and most parts of Europe; and sometimes admitted in gardens, in moist places, for variety, and as a medical plant. 3. The chamaedrys, or smaller creeping germander, hath fibrous, very creeping, spreading roots; many four-cornered, very branchy, trailing stalks, near a foot long; oval, cuneiform, cut, crenated leaves on short foot-stalks; and reddish flowers, growing almost in a verticillus, or whorls, round the stalk, three on each peduncle; appearing in June and July. Is a native of Germany, France, &c. 4. The polium, or common yellow mountain-poly, hath a fibrous perennial root; herbaceous, trailing, branchy stalks, prostrate on the ground; oblong, obtuse, crenated, downy, sessile leaves; and the branches terminated by roundish heads of yellow and other coloured flowers in the varieties; appearing in June and July. There are many varieties of this species, distinguished by some little variation in their growth,
Teutones, growth, having all roundish heads of flowers; mostly, however, either white or yellow. It grows naturally in Spain and Portugal, &c. 5. The montanum, mountain-poly, with lavender leaves, hath a fibrous, tough, ligneous root; somewhat ligneous, weak, procumbent stalks; spear-shaped entire leaves, hoary underneath; and small white flowers in a corymbus at the termination of the branches, in June and July. They are all perennial plants, durable in root; and some of the ligneous kinds are also abiding in stalk, more particularly some of the poliums. The leaves and seed of the chamædrys have been recommended as diuretic, sudoric, and emmenagogue; but are now very little used.