SPECIFIC CHARACTER, &C.
Salvia, foliis ovalibus rugosis obsolete crenatis, verticillis terminalibus nudis quadrifloris, staminibus corolla brevioribus.
Sage, with oval rough obsoletely notched leaves, terminal naked four-flowered whorls, and chives shorter than the blossom.
Salvia Chamædrifolia. Donn’s Hort. Cantab. p. 7.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. The empalement.
2.The blossom with the chives attached.
3. The seed-bud and pointal, with the summit magnified
Our drawing was made from plants in the Hibbertian collection at Clapham last autumn: but we have also seen this Sage in other places; particularly at Cambridge; and know it to be the Salvia Chamædrifolia of the Hortus Cantabrigiensis ed. 3.: but we do not find that name in any other publication within our reach.
Mr. Donn marks it as a green-house perennial, and gives Spain as its native country, but with a note of interrogation; and adds that it flowers in July and August; and that it was introduced into our gardens in the year 1798.
We believe that A. B. Lambert, Esq. was the first introducer of it, and that gentleman thinks he received the seeds of it from Spain. The first time of our seeing it was at J. Vere’s, Esq. in the autumn of 1802, where it was cultivated as a green-house shrub, and by the name of S. citrina, a name that well expresses the charming odour of its leaves when gently rubbed; which not a little resembles the pleasing, well-known scent of Lemon Thyme.
It is propagated by cuttings in the usual way: its stem and branches are very slender, but shrubby, and arise to the height of two or three feet. The flowers are terminal, large, showy, and posses a beautiful colour of the deepest blue.[Pg 113]