Economic Botany Collection

Catalogue no.:

46132

Botanical classification:

LABIATAE Ocimum tenuiflorum

Common name:

Tulsi, tulasi, holy basil

Geographical description:

Madras (now Tamil Nadu), India

Item description:

Necklaces of beads made from woody roots. This is an unusual use of the root of this plant; beads are more usually made from its woody stems.

Length:

48cm(small), 61cm(medium), 115cm(large)

No. of beads:

168 (approx.), 102, 110

Bead size:

0.3cm, 0.5cm, 0.9cm

Plant information:

Aromatic shrub native to tropical regions of Asia and the Americas. Tulsi has been used for centuries for medicinal, culinary and religious purposes. It is a sacred plant in Hinduism and is widely cultivated in the on the Indian subcontinent. In Sanskrit Tulsi or Tulasi means ‘the incomparable one’. An attractive plant that grows well in European and North American gardens.

Donor date:

02/04/1884

Donor:

Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant-Duff (1829-1906) - Sir Grant-Duff donated these three rosaries to Kew while Governor of Madras in India. He was born at Eden, Aberdeenshire and studied classical studies and philosophy at Oxford before going to read for the bar in London. His extensive travels covered Europe, the Near East and India. Gladstone made him under-secretary for India in 1868, and for the Colonies in 1880. He became governor of Madras in 1881 and whilst there, he took a strong interest in forests and fauna and flora in general. He later became president of the Royal Geographical Society (1889-92) and of the Royal Historical Society (1892-99), and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1881.