50 FLOIIA DOMESTICA. 



those are some of the handsomest and sweetest kinds ; as 

 the American Basil, with a flesh-coloured flower, remark- 

 able for its agreeable scent ; the Monk's Basil, a small annual 

 plant, with a white and purple flower, a mysterious fo- 

 reigner, whose country is unknown to us ; and Sweet Basil, 

 which has spikes of white flowers, five or six inches in 

 length, and a strong scent of cloves : of this species there 

 is a variety smelling of citron, and another of which the 

 flowers are purple. 



In the East this plant is used both in cookery and me- 

 dicine, and the seeds are considered efficacious against the 

 poison of serpents. 



The Basil, called by the Hindoos, holy or sacred herb, 

 is so highly venerated by them, that they have given one 

 of its names to a sacred grove of their Parnassus, on the 

 banks of the Yamuna. 



In Persia (where it is called rayhan), it is generally 

 found in churchyards : 



" the Basil-tuft that waves 



Its fragrant blossom over graves." 



It is probably the custom to use it in Italy also to adorn 

 tombs and graves, and this may have been Boccaccio's 

 reason for selecting it to shade the melancholy treasure of 

 Isabella. The exquisite story which he has told us, has 

 lately become familiar to English readers, in the poems of 

 Mr. Barry Cornwall and Mr. Keats. The former does 

 not venture, like Boccaccio, to describe Isabella as che- 

 rishing the head of her lover, but makes her bury the 

 heart in a pot of Basil ; first so enwrapping and embalming 

 it as to preserve it from decay. Mr. Keats is more true 

 to his Italian original, and not only describes her as bury- 

 ing the head, but makes the head itself serve to enrich 

 the soil, and beautify the tree ; nay, even to become a part 

 of it: 



