Where's the Basil?

Last summer, I breathlessly covered the bloody, violent, costly (OK—mildly amusing) Basil Wars of Carroll Gardens. Basil was brazenly stolen from a planter outside a green-brick building on President Street near Henry. Parents were angered. Children wept. An angry sign scolded the herbaceous thieves. And then the greenery was completely withdrawn altogether! Peace returned to the valley when an Good Samaritan anonymously donated new basil.

Whew! What a summer that was. I anxiously awaited a possible repeat. It was way past the time when basil-planting should be done with. (My own basil is flourishing.) But there was no basil in the planter outside the box. There was—what is that? Not parsley. Lemon Verbena? Maybe not a herb at all. What produce robber would want to steal that? Ah, no fun.