“sy oA Oo. 
Hasrtl--Sweet, 
Ocunum bvasiliomn. Narurar Orver: Labiate — Mint Family. 
WEET BASIL, or Royal Ocimum, is a very aromatic herb 
from Persia, where it is much planted in graveyards. It is also 
indigenous to the East Indies, where its seeds are considered an 
antidote to the poison of serpents. It is an annual, about a foot 
Sy, high, with a soft, oval leaf, various in color, which possesses a 
Vee very agreeable fragrance. The flowers, which are nearly white, 
appear during the summer. French cooks are very partial to this 
herb in flavoring their various dishes, and for this purpose it is 
extensively grown in the vegetable gardens of Europe, as well as in 
America. Apparently from confounding the word with basiliscus, a 
basilisk, or possibly because of its use as an antidote, whence it may 
have come to represent a serpent hater, it has been taken as 2 
symbol for hatred, but the following is the proper language. 
Good Wishes. 
OFT be the sleep of their pleasant hours, 
And calm be the seas they roam! 
May the way they travel be strewed with flowers, 
Till it bring them safely home! —Oliver Twiss. 
O wish thee fairer is no need, O may’st thou live, dear! many years, 
More prudent, or more sprightly, In all the bliss that life endears, 
Or more ingenious, or more freed Not without smiles, nor yet from tears, 
From temper flaws unsightly. Too strictly kept. —Thomas Hood, 
What favor then not yet possess’d 
Can I for thee require, F, then, a fervent wish for thee 
In wedded love already blest The gracious heavens will heed from me, 
To thy whole heart's desire? — Comper. What should, dear heart, its burden be? 
—F. G. Whittier. 
ND what am I to you? A steady hand 
To hold, a steadfast heart to trust withal; 
Merely a man that loves you, and will stand 
y By you, whate’er befall. —Fean Ingelow. 
KG 43 
Ne spel 
aor 
Caeune eS 
