VEGETABLES — BEAN. 101 



There are two species cultivated, namely, the Common 

 Sweet Basil, {Ocimum JBasilicum), and the Bush Basil, 

 (0. minimum). 



BALM. — {Melissa officinalis.) 



Another well-known aromatic herb, which has a very 

 agreeable lemon-like odor. It is used as a tea for its sooth- 

 ing effect in irritations of the throat and lungs, and a cen- 

 tury ago was used as a specific for coughs and colds. Its 

 young shoots arc sometimes used as an ingredient in 

 salads. It is rapidly propagated by divisions of the root, 

 which, planted in spring, at 1 foot apart each way, will 

 form a solid mass by fall. 



Besides the common kind, we have now in cultivation 

 a beautiful variegated variety, possessing all the properties 

 of the other. 



BEAN. — {Phaseolus nanus.) — Busn, Kidney, or Snap. 



A leading vegetable of our market gardens, and ex- 

 tensively cultivated in every section of the country, 

 North and South. Although it can be grown on soils that 

 are not enriched by manure, yet, like almost every other 

 vegetable, it is more profitable when grown on highly cul- 

 tivated land. It is, what we term, a "tender" plant; 

 that is, one that will be killed by the action of slight 

 frosts, hence it is not planted until late enough in the 

 spring, to secure it from the risk. As in a country pre- 

 senting such differences of temperature as ours, no stated 

 date can be given at which to sow, perhaps no safer rule 



