APPENDIX IV 

 THE BASIL 



I propose to treat here briefly of the history of a genus of plants 

 which has not yet been discussed by historians, Ocimum, an extensive 

 genus of the order Labiatae. I do not share the common opinion of 

 most commentators of Theophrastus and Pliny, that their &KWOV or 

 ocimum is identical with the Ocimum basilicum of Linne*. Theophrastus 

 touches on okimon in several passages; but what he describes is a shrub, 

 not an herb, nor does he emphasize any of the characteristic properties 

 of Ocimum basilicum. FEE justly comments on Pliny (xx, 48) that 

 this species is not understood by him, it being originally from India 

 (or rather, as will be seen, from Iran), and never found in a wild state. 

 From what Varro says, he infers that Pliny's ocimum must be sought 

 among the leguminous plants, the genus Hedysarum, Lathyrus, or 

 Medicago. 1 Positive evidence of this conclusion comes from Ibn al- 

 Baitar, whose vast compilation is principally based on the work of 

 Dioscorides, with the addition of annotations of Arabic authors. Ibn 

 al-Baitar, in his discussion of the plant which we call Ocimum, does 

 not fall back on the okimon of Dioscorides (n, 171), and, in fact, does 

 not cite him at all. 2 He merely reproduces the data of Arabic writers: 

 this is decisive, and leads us to reject any connection between the 

 ocimum of the ancients and the species coming from the Orient and 

 known to our science of botany as Ocimum. 3 



There is good reason to assume that at least one species, if not 

 several, is a native of Persia, and was diffused from there to India 

 and China, probably also to the West. This is Ocimum basilicum, the 

 sweet or common basil. The name paaCKiKov ("royal") as the designa- 

 tion of an Ocimum first occurs in Byzantine literature, in Aetius (sixth 

 century) and Symeon Seth; and, since the king of Persia was known to 

 the Greeks simply as "the king" (/Sao-tXcus), it is more than probable 

 that the Greek term is reproduced after the model of Persian Sdh- 

 siparam (spram) or $ah-i sfaram, which means as much as "fragrant 



1 Cf . BOSTOCK and RILEY, Natural History of Pliny, Vol. IV, p. 249. 



2 Cf. LECLERC, Traits des simples, Vol. II, p. 186; Vol. Ill, p. 191. 



8 Leclerc upholds the opposite opinion, although Sprengel, Fe"e, and Littr6 argue 

 in the same manner as here proposed. 



586 



