CULINARY HERBS 7 1 



basil in pots and presented them with compliments 

 to their landladies when these paid their visits. 



Borage (Borago officinalis, Linn.), a coarse, hardy, 

 annual herb of the natural order Boraginaceae. Its 

 popular name, derived from the generic, is sup- 

 posed by some to have come from a corruption of 

 cor, the heart, and ago, to affect, because of its former 

 use as a cordial or heart-fortifying medicine. Cour- 

 age is from the same source. The Standard Diction- 

 ary, however, points to hurrago, rough, and relates it 

 indirectly by cross references to hirrus, a thick, 

 coarse woolen cloth worn by the poor during the thir- 

 teenth century. The roughness of the full-grown 

 leaves suggests flannel. Whichever derivation be 

 correct, each is interesting as implying qualities, 

 intrinsic or attributed, to the plant. 



The specific name indicates its obsolete use in 

 medicine. It is one of the numerous plants which 

 have shaken off the superstitions which a credulous 

 populace wreathed around them. Almost none but the 

 least enlightened people now attribute any medici- 

 nal virtues whatever to it. 



The plant is said to come originally from Aleppo, 

 but for centuries has been considered a native of 

 Mediterranean Europe and Africa, whence it has 

 become naturalized throughout the world by 

 Europeans, who grew it probably more for medicinal 

 than for culinary purposes. According to Ainslie, 

 it was among the species listed by Peter Martyr as 

 planted on Isabella Island by Columbus's compan- 

 ions. The probability is that it was also brought 

 to America by the colonists during Queen Eliza- 



