7 
grow bushier. When established in favorable, light sandy soil, it 
grows weedily and self-sows all about, so that one may have 
charming scalloped-leaved plants to give to friends. 
5. Basin (Ocimum Basilicum). Sweet basil has always been 
associated with the fair sex, and tradition has it that it will flourish 
if stroked by a beautiful woman, in passing. A boy in Italy, going 
to meet his sweetheart, wears a sprig of it behind his ear; a com- 
mon name for basil being “Baccia, Nicola” (Kiss-me-Nichola). 
Among the Hindus, a variety of basil, fulasi, is sacred to Vishnu, 
and planted before dwellings to protect the family from misfortune. 
Leaves of it are used in burial ceremonies, signifying immortality. 
as tansy did in early Colonial days in America. Contrarily, there 
is a saying that basil must be sown with curses, if it is to flourish, 
and the French idiomatic phrase, semer le basilic (to sow basil), 
means “to slander.” It was one of the four “cordial” herbs, and 
its use in salads and tomato juice definitely does raise one’s spirits, 
for it has a special affinity of taste with tomatoes and makes a 
delicious blend with other greens in a mixed salad. The young 
tops are used fresh in summer and should be harvested for winter, 
just as the buds are about to blossom, and dried in moderate heat. 
It is delicious powdered on eggs lightly fried with bacon, also in 
scrambled eggs and omelets. 
There are several varieties of basil, all with about the same 
fragrance of leaf: Ocimum basilicum minimum, which is a tiny- 
leaved, bushy, dwarf basil; lettuce-leaf basil, which has a large 
crinkled leaf; purple basil, an attractive color for a collection. 
Sweet basil and the varieties are all tender annuals, growing easily 
from seed sown out of doors in May, and the more it is cut the 
bushier it will grow. Basil should grow well in window boxes or 
pots indoors, either potted and brought in, or the seed sown in 
early fall indoors. 
6. BEE BaLm or Osweco TEA (Monarda didyma), as its name 
imphies, is attractive to bees. The wild bergamot (/. fistulosa) 
surplish flowers. True bee balm has scarlet 
flowers, and it is this plant which was used as a substitute for tea 
has lavender, pink, or 
— 
during the American Revolution; its aromatic leaves are still en- 
joyed by some. It was among herbs taken to church for sniffing. 
The dried leaves are good for nausea. This is not the source of 
