6 CULINARY HERBS 



was the swimming, or the three-legged racing, or the 

 swinging, or all put together, that put a razor edge 

 on our appetites and made us relish those sand- 

 wiches more than was perhaps polite ; but will we 

 not, all of us who ate them, stand ready to dispute 

 with all comers that it was the flavors that made 

 us forget *'our manners"? 



But sweet herbs may be made to serve another 

 pleasing, an aesthetic purpose. Many of them may 

 be used for ornament. A bouquet of the pale pink 

 blossoms of thyme and the delicate flowers of mar- 

 joram, the fragrant sprigs of lemon balm mixed with 

 the bright yellow umbels of sweet fennel, the finely 

 divided leaves of rue and the long glassy ones of 

 bergamot, is not only novel in appearance but In 

 odor. In sweetness it excels even sweet peas and 

 roses. Mixed with the brilliant red berries of bar- 

 berry and multiflora rose, and the dark-green 

 branches of the hardy thyme, which continues fresh 

 and sweet through the year, a handsome and lasting 

 bouquet may be made for a midwinter table decora- 

 tion, a fragrant reminder of Shakespeare's lines in 

 "A Winter's Tale" : 



" Here's flowers for you ; 

 Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram ; 

 The marigold, that goes to bed wi' the sun 

 And with him rises weeping." 



The rare aroma of sweet marjoram reminds so 

 many city people of their mother's and their grand- 

 mother's country gardens, that countless muslin 

 bags of the dried leaves sent to town ostensibly for 

 stuffing poultry never reach the kitchen at all, but 



