Basil. 
(HATRED.) 
T HIS plant derives its name from a Greek word signifying 
royal. It is generally called “ sweet basil; ” and why so 
odoriferous a herb should have become the symbol of hatred 
it is difficult to imagine. Some say because, at times, the 
ancients represented Poverty by the figure of a female covered 
with rags, and seated by a plant of basil. 
These sweet-scented herbs are chiefly natives of the East 
Indies, where their seeds are deemed efficacious against the 
poison of serpents. In Persia, where it is called rayhan, 
“ The basil tuft that waves 
Its fragrant blossom over graves,” 
is generally found in churchyards. 
We read, in Maillet’s “ Letters,” that the Egyptian women 
go, at least two days in the week, to pray and weep at the 
sepulchres of the dead ; and the custom there is to throw upon 
the tombs a sort of herb, which the Arabs call rihan, and which 
is our sweet basil. By the Hindoos the basil is highly venera¬ 
ted ; they call it “ holy shrub,” and have named after it a 
sacred grove of their Parnassus, on the banks of the Yamuna. 
In a beautiful poem by Shelley, this plant is alluded to as a 
token flower: 
“Madonna, wherefore hast thou sent to me 
Sweet basil and mignonette ? 
Embleming love and health, which never yet 
In the same wreath might be. 
Alas, and they are wet! 
Is it with thy kisses or thy tears? 
For never rain or dew 
Such fragrance drew 
From plant or flower.” 
