596 BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS 



Linn. Holy Ocymum ? 



The Natural Character as in Linnaeus. 

 See 10 H. M. p. 173. 

 It is wonderful that Rheede has exhibited no 

 delineation of a shrub so highly venerated by the 

 Hindus^ who have given one of its names to a sacred 

 grove of their Parnassus on the banks of the Yamuna : 

 he describes it, however, in general terms, as resem- 

 bling another of his Tolassis (for so he writes the 

 word, though Tulasi be clearly intended by his 

 JSa'gar) letters) ; and adds, that it is the only species 

 reputed holy, and dedicated to the God Vishnu. I 

 should, consequently, have taken it for the Holy 

 Ocymum of Linnaeus, if its odour, of which that 

 species is said to be nearly destitute, had not been 

 very aromatic and grateful ; but it is more probably 

 a variety of that species than of the Small~flowered % 

 which resembles it a little in fragrance. Whatever be 

 its L'mrutan appellation, if it have any, the following 

 are the only remarks that I have yet had leisure to 

 make on it. 



Stem one or two feet high, mostly incurved 

 above ; knotty and rough below. Branchlets 

 cross-armed, channelled. Leaves opposite, rather 

 small, egged, pointed, acutely sawed; purple 

 veined beneath, dark above. Petjo/s dark 

 purple, downy. Racemes terminal ; Flowers ver- 

 ticiUed three- fold or five-fold, cross-armed, ver-* 

 ticils from seven to fourteen ; Peduncles dark pur- 

 ple, channelled, villous; tracts sessile^ roundish, 

 concave, reflected. Calyx with its upper lip on 



bjcuUr, 



