This annual herb from the Old World tropics is often called Sweet Basil, and is a bushy plant with yellowish-green or often purplish leaves that glisten with the fragrant oil drops which drove Keats to write his exquisite poem, "The Pot of Basil." The odor and, hence, flavor of the dried or fresh leaves are somewhat anise-like, mixed with a dash of spice, liquorice, and lemon. It is this that makes basil such a famous ingredient of French and Italian cookery. Only its foliage is useful, and because it is highly aromatic only a row 4-6 feet long will be needed for the average family. Like all strong-smelling herbs it must be used with discretion, but so used it supplies one of our best herb ingredients for salads, egg or tomato dishes, and for many fish and innumerable meat delicacies. It can be used fresh at any time, but most of it will be stored for later use.

When the small white or purplish-tinted flowers are open (late July or August), cut the foliage down to 6-8 inches above the ground, and the plant will put out a new lot of leaves, often after a second or third cutting. Freshly cut leaves should immediately be dried* and the leaves and flower clusters stored in tight containers, but avoid putting in the stems.

Sow the seeds about 1 to 11/2 inches apart in the row, and usually the plants will not need a thinning out. There is a lower, more woody and perennial form of this (Ocimum mininum), the so-called bush basil, but it is little known here.

Borage (Borago officinalis) Borage Family (Boraginaceae)

A Mediterranean, rather weedy annual, 1-2 feet high, the beautiful, showy, blue flowers bloom in midsummer. It is not highly regarded by some herbalists, but ibn-al-Baytar, an Arab botanist who lived in Spain in the thirteenth century, thought that the flowers and young leaves in wine "made one jolly" and were supposed to have medicinal qualities, but modern experts call them "feeble." The only reason for in- cluding it here is that the tender tops make a little-known flavor for salads, and a few sprigs give an undeniable odor to a claret cup.

Like its close relatives the anchusas, borage is a bristly-hairy herb, the bruised foliage of which suggests the flavor of a mild cucumber. It is easily grown from seed, and a succession should be sown if a continuous supply of the tender terminal foliage and flowers is wanted.