my cousin winnie was digging up a thai basil yesterday. what, don't you want basil, i asked, surprised. once it flowers, it's no good for cooking. besides, she gestures at her flourishing garden, i have two others. i thought it was a bit heartless to throw out a herb just because it's flowering, like killing off the old hens that wouldn't lay anymore. couldn't you relegate it to ornamental status? the flowers (purple and white) are very pretty. in the end she cut off the flowering spikes and put them in a jar for me. i have put this jar out in the garden, where, with the encouragement of plenty of sunlight, i am hoping they may sprout roots. i wonder if bats are fond of the smell of basil; or rather, i hope they are not repelled by basil, in the way mosquitoes are (supposedly) by citronella grass (kept abundantly in my aunt's garden for this reason - i can't tell if it has any effect - i have not been bitten by a mosquito in her house either before or after the acquisition of said plants.) bats, i am learning, are of the micro- and mega- variety, and only the former use echolocation! megabats are frugivores and rely on good vision instead. they don't need echolocation because mangoes and durians don't run away from them. megabats are chiefly found in the eastern hemisphere, where they pollinate fruit trees, whereas the sort of bat you would most likely encounter in europe or the americas are the insectivore microbats.