122 
Old Time Gardens 
“ Faire Basil desireth it may be hir lot 
To growe as the gilly flower trim in a pot 
That Ladies and Gentils whom she doth serve 
May help hir as needeth life to preserve.’ ’ 
An explanation of this rhyme is given by Tusser 
Redivivus : “ Most people stroak Garden Basil 
which leaves a grateful smell on the hand and he will 
have it that Stroaking from a fair lady preserves the 
life of the Basil.” 
This is a striking example of floral telepathy; 
you know what the Basil wishes, and the Basil knows 
and craves your affection, and repays your caress 
with her perfume and growth. It is a case of 
mutual attraction ; and I beg the “ Gentle Reader” 
never to pass a pot or plant of Basil without 
“ stroaking” it ; that it may grow and multiply and 
forever retain its relations with fair women, as a type 
of the purest, the most clinging, and grateful love. 
One amusing use of Basil (as given in one of 
my daughter’s old Herbals) was intended to check 
u To MAKE THAT A WOMAN SHALL EAT OF NOTHING 
that is set upon the Table: — Take a little green 
Basil, and when Men bring the Dishes to the Table put 
it underneath them that the Woman perceive it not; so 
Men say that she will eat of none of that which is in the 
Dish whereunder the Basil lieth.” 
I cannot understand why so sinister an association 
was given to a pot of Basil by Boccaccio, who 
makes the unhappy Isabella conceal the head of her 
murdered lover in a flower pot under a plant of 
