THISTLE-SAGE.
Salvia carduacea, Benth. Mint Family.
Leaves.—All radical; thistle-like; with cobwebby wool. Stems.—Stout; a foot or two high. Flower-whorls.—An inch or two through. Calyx.—Bilabiate; with five spiny teeth. Corolla.—Lavender; an inch long. Upper lip erect; two-cleft. Lower fan-shaped; white-fringed. Stamens.—On the lower lip. Proper filaments very short, with one short and one long fork, each bearing an anther-cell. (Otherwise like S. Columbariæ.) Hab.—Western and Southern California.
Upon the dry, open plains of the south, the charming flowers of the thistle-sage make their appearance by May. Upon the train we pass myriads of them standing along the embankments, and seeming to beckon mockingly at us, well knowing the train almost never stops where we can get them.
These plants present the most remarkable blending of the rigid, uncompromising, touch-me-not aspect and the ethereal and fragile. In each of the several stories of the flower-cluster there are usually a number of the exquisitely delicate flowers in bloom at once, standing above the hemisphere of densely crowded, spiny calyx-tips. Nothing more airy or fantastic could well be imagined than these diaphanous blossoms. The upper lip of the corolla stands erect, its two lobes side by side, or crossed like two delicate little hands. The lower lip has two small and inconspicuous lateral lobes and one large central one, which is like the ruff of a fantail pigeon and daintily fringed with white. The color combination in these blossoms is charming. To the sage green of the foliage and the lilac of the blossoms is added the dash of orange in the anthers that puts the finishing touch. The whole plant has a heavy, dull odor of sage.
This species is also sometimes called "chia," and its seeds are used in the same manner as those of our other Salvia, but to no such extent.