Re:

I once asked an "herbalist" to define what they considered an herb to be, and they got mad at me for asking. To this day I still don't know whether I'm a fan of "herbs", as nobody has yet defined what an herb is in a satisfactory way to enable me to know whether I'm a fan of herbs or not. If hops is considered an herb, then, I like hops. But that doesn't mean I like all herbs, whatever they may be, any more than I like all of any group. I like rosemary too, but I consider it more of an evergreen than I do an herb. Herbs are what the colonel put in his chicken, and I never eat that stuff. 

Actually the botanical definition of an herb is a plant without woody tissue.  So under this definition a banana tree is an herb as are hops.  Rosemary is not.