152 ODOEOGRAPHIA. 



Basil. 



Ocimum basilicum, Linn. Sweet Basil. Wight Ic. t 868 ; 

 Jacq. Hort. YincL, iii., t. 72 ; Eheede Hort. MaL, x., t. 87. A native 

 of the East Indies and tropical Africa. It is rather a tender 

 annual and highly aromatic. The parts used are the leaves and 

 small branches or leafy tops. Three forms of this labiate plant 

 are common in India : the mint-like garden basil, with large 

 flowers and green or purple stems ; the vaviety pilosic7n of Eoxburgh 

 having a pleasant lemon odour, and a small variety common in 

 gardens and on waste ground, having a marked peppermint odour, 

 hardly different from 0. canum* 



Pioxburgh states the 0. hasilicum to be a native of Persia, and 

 was from thence sent to the Botanic Garden at Calcutta under the 

 Persian names Deban-shah and Deban-macwassi. It is very 

 nearly allied to 0. thyrsiflorum. It is an annual ; the whole plant 

 has somewhat a ferruginous appearance. Leaves ovate-oblong, 

 grossly and acutely serrate, smooth. Bractes lanceolate, ciliate. 

 Upper lip of the calyx broad-cordate. Stamen and style longer 

 than the corolla. Filaments amply crested. In Bengal it flowers 

 during the rains and cool season. The leaves distilled with water 

 yield about 1'56 per cent, of a yellowish-green oil, lighter than 

 water f which, wlien kept, solidifies almost wholly, as crystallised 

 Basil ccrnvplior; the solid oil crystallised from alcohol forms 4-sided 

 prisms, having a faint smell and taste ; crystallised from w^ater, it 

 forms white, transparent, nearly tasteless tetrahedrons. :|: 



Basilicum oils of very fine quality are distilled in Java and iu 

 the island of Eeunion. The excellent fragrance of these oils 

 renders them very suitable for blending in compound bouquet 

 perfumes, and they are said to have a specially excellent effect in 

 the composition of " Mignonette extract." 



The History of Basil in Europe is described by De Gubernatis, 

 "Mythologie des Plantes," ii. p. 35. Mention of its medicinal 

 properties is made in'' Medical Pecord," xvi., p. 325. The price of the 

 seeds in Bombay is quoted by Dr. Dymock as Es. 4 per maund of 



* PhaiTaacograplna Indica, iii., p. 85. 

 - t Journ. de Pharni,, xx., p. 447. 

 X Gmelins Handbook, xiv., p. 359. 



