but are occasionally pure white ; the plant has an odour 
closely resembling that ‘of Salvia officinalis. The plant from 
which the material for our plate has been obtained is one 
that was procured for the Kew collection in 1906 from 
Messrs. Bees, Limited. Under cultivation it retains the 
features attributed to it in the wild state by Aitchison; its 
chief value as a garden plant lies in the abundant and very 
pleasing display of blossom which it provides in August 
and September when few shrubby species are to be had in 
flower. The silvery grey of the stems and flower-stalks 
affords an admirable contrast with the rich violet-blue of 
the corollas. The flowers are produced ina large panicle, 
1-1} ft. high, terminating the current season’s growth. 
Much of the upper part of this growth is soft and dies off in 
winter; the plant should therefore be pruned back to the 
woody portion of the stem and branches every spring. Like 
most of the Labiate family, it is easily increased by cuttings 
cf young wood, made about July and placed in gentle heat. 
P. atriplicifolia thrives well in ‘a deep but not heavy loam. 
There has been some dubiety as to the exact natural 
position of the genus, mainly perhaps owing to the fact that 
both Karelin and Bentham ‘have described as the upper lips 
of the calyx and corolla what in reality are the lower. Bunge, 
who pointed out this misapprehension in 1851, has shown 
that the corolla is almost identical in structure with that of 
some of the Ocimoideae. The flowers are dimorphic ; some- 
times, as in our figure, with short stamens and an exserted 
style, sometimes with an included style and with exserted 
fertile stamens. 
Description.— Shrub, 3-5 ft. high. Stem erect, strict, terete, 
shortly stellate-tomentose hoary, branching upwards. Leaves 
ovate-lanceolate or lanceolate, the largest 14-21 in. long, 
3-1 in. wide, subacute, irregularly serrate or incised, 
gradually narrowed to the base, ‘at first more or less 
covered with simple or stellate hairs, at length nearly 
glabrous, resinously glandular on both surfaces with rather 
raised main-nerves beneath ; petiole 4-3 in. long. Inflores- 
cence paniculate, 1-14 ft. long, with numerous strict, slender, 
spiciform branches; whorls very numerous, 2—6-flowered, 
more or less segregated; bracteoles narrow-ovate or lanceo- 
late, shorter than the calyx. Flowers sessile or very shortly 
