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 | Basil Other Names: Hedge Basil. Hedge Calamint
Botanical Name: Calamintha Clinopodium
Family: N.O. Labiatae |
Description: |
The shortly - stalked, egg shaped leaves, 1 to 2 inches long, are placedopposite to one another on the four-angled stem, the pairs being some distance apart. They are only slightly toothed at their edges and like the stem are downy with soft hairs.
The flowers, with tubular, lipped corollas of a pinkish colour, are arranged on the stem in several crowded, bristly rings or whorls, at the points from which the leaf-stalks spring, and are in bloom from July to September.
The whole herb is aromatic and fragrant, with a faint Thyme-like odour, and like Calamint has been used to make an infusion for similar complaints.
The name of the species, Clinopodium, signifies 'bedfoot.' An old writer says 'the tufts of the plant are like the knobs at the feet of a bed,' but the comparison is not very obvious. By some botanists the plant has been described under the name of C. vulgare, but it is now assigned to the genus, Calamintha.
The Wild Basil, or Hedge Basil (Calamintha Clinopodium) (sometimes called Hedge Calamint), is a straggling plant with somewhat weak-looking, though erect stems, rising to a height of a foot or 18 inches, and thickly covered with soft hairs. |
Habitat: |
| The plant is widely distributed throughout the North Temperate Zone, and is common in England and Scotland in dry hedges and the borders of copses, mostly in high situations. In Ireland it is somewhat rare. |
Ancient Lore: |
BASIL OGYMUM BASILICUM
This is the herb which all authors are together by the ears about, and rail at one another, like lawyers. Galen and Dioscorides hold it not fitting to be taken inwardly, and Chesippus rails at it with downright Billingsgate rhetoric.. Pliny and the Arabian physicians defend it.
This is the Garden or Sweet Basil. It has one upright stalk, branching on all sides with two leaves at every joint, a little snipped about the edges. The flowers are small and whitish.
Where to find it: It grows in gardens. Flowering time: Mid to late summer.
Astrology: A herb of Mars and under the Scorpion, and therefore called Basilicon. It is no marvel if it carry a kind of virulent quality with it.
Medicinal virtues: Applied to the place bitten by venomous beasts, or stung by a wasp or hornet, it speedily draws the poison to it. Every like draws its like. This herb and Rue will never grow together, nor near one another; and we know Rue is as great an enemy to poison as any that grows. It expelleth both birth and afterbirth and as it helps the deficiency of Venus in one kind, so it spoils all her actions in another. 1 dare write no more of it.
Modern uses: Basil is a popular culinary herb. It is aromatic, and carminative. It will expel flatulence and help to ease griping pains in the abdomen. The essential oil obtained from the plant contains camphor. As a medicine Basil is taken in the form of an infusion. |
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