The concept that galanin (GAL) is cosecreted with acetylcholine (ACh) into the ventral hippocampus is a major component of the current model delineating GAL regulation of the cholinergic memory pathways in the rat. Although GAL‐immunoreactivity coexists in 50–70% of cholinergic neurons in the basal forebrain (BF) of colchicine‐treated rats, the actual coexistence of these neurotransmitters in the basal state may be lower, because colchicine treatment was recently shown to both induce GAL gene expression and inhibit choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) gene expression in this brain region. We have used single and double in situ hybridization histochemistry to examine the distribution and coexistence of GAL and ChAT mRNAs in the BF of male and female rats. Compared with other forebrain regions, few GAL mRNA‐expressing neurons are present within the cholinergic fields of the BF. The greatest number of GAL mRNA‐expressing cells in this region are located within the nucleus of the horizontal limb of the diagonal band; but, even in this region, they represent only a small percentage (<20%) of ChAT mRNA‐expressing cells. Our results indicate that few cholinergic neurons in the rat BF coexpress GAL mRNA and suggest that, in the basal state, GAL is not widely cosecreted with ACh into hippocampal memory centers. J. Comp. Neurol. 391:248–258, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.