
What are Herbs? 
Properly speaking,an herb is a plant which 
dies down to the ground each year;i.e. an annual 
or herbaceous perennial without woody stems or 
evergreen leaves. By common acceptance,the word 
herb has come to mean any botanical specimen 
which has been used for food, flavor, perfume, 
cosmetic or medicine 
Thus many of the herbs are evergreen in nature, 
some actually being trees and shrubs such as 
Laurus nobilis which provides our Bay leaves. It 
would also appear that almost all cultivated 
plants belong in this category,for even the garden 
flowers probably were grown first for food, flavoring 
or medicine. 
There are more than 100 different kinds of 
herbs which may be grown in the temperate zone 
as garden subjects. Of these,the fifty-odd which 
contain flavor-bearing essential oils in their 
roots, leaves, flowers or seeds,may be divided in 
the following four groups. Most of the varieties 
in each group may be grown from seed as easily 
as any flowers or vegetable. All of them are 
plants with a purpose that more than justifies 
their decorative presence in the home garden. 
Among the annual and perennial plants of an 
aromatic nature,several will be found which could 
be added to the flower garden, the vegetable patch, 
a rockery or a terrace planting. However,a garden 
of herbs combines the pleasures of beauty to look 
upon, fragrance to enjoy and flavors to enhance 
other foods, better than any other type of planting, 
