28 



THE HERB-GARDEN 



we must speak when we come to talk about 

 perennials. 



Sweet Basil is the right Herb for flavouring 

 turtle-soup. It has a warm taste resembling clove, 

 and is a great improvement to sauces and to * cups.' 

 Two hundred years ago French cooks were just as 

 devoted to it for their ragouts as they are to-day. 

 Why do we so rarely see it in England ? 



Another form of the Basil plant, Ocymum sanctum, 

 IS very well known to Anglo-Indians as the Tulasi, 

 a Herb which is held sacred by the Hindoos. A 

 little shrub of it grows out of a square hollow pillar 

 before every Hindoo dwelling. It never looks at 

 all happy or flourishing, though tended every day. 

 Brahmins like to eat a few leaves always after their 

 meals ; perhaps they rob the plant too much. No 

 doubt the leaves are excellent for the digestion. 



Basil, for all it is used at aldermanic feasts (in 

 soup), has a melancholy association owing, of 

 course, to Isabella and her Basil-pot, with its 

 terrible contents — the decapitated head of her 

 lover, Lorenzo : 



' She wrapped it up, and for its tomb did choose 

 A garden pot, wherein she laid it by, 

 And covered it with mould, and o'er it set 

 Sweet Easily which her tears kept ever wet.' 



