been raised, in 1829, from seed collected on the mountains 



of Mexico by Graham, Esq., a gentleman who has 



enriched our Gardens with several fine things, and who has 

 formed a most interesting herbarium of Mexican mountain 

 plants. About the same time, a plant that had been com- 

 municated by Mr. H. Silverlock, nurseryman, Chichester, 

 produced its blossoms in the same collection. Notwith- 

 standing the unfavourable summer we have just expe- 

 rienced, a summer so cold that the natives of milder 

 climates have scarcely been able to support a feeble 

 existence, and in which the common Salvia splendens has 

 not produced a single flower, this species has displayed 

 its nodding heads of dazzling scarlet in all their native 

 beauty. On this account the Cardinal Sage may be ex- 

 pected to prove a most valuable addition to our autumnal 

 flowers ; for if it succeeds thus well in a summer almost 

 unparalleled for cold, wet, and gloom, what may not be 

 hoped from it in a more genial season ? It grows about 

 3 feet high, and strikes freely from cuttings. 



The constitutional difference between Salvia splendens 

 and fulgens is, no doubt, due to the very dissimilar localities 

 they naturally occupy. While the former is a native of 

 Brazil, the latter grows abuncjantly in cold situations be- 

 tween Tolucca and Tianguillo, at an elevation of between 

 nine and ten thousand feet above the sea. Hence, if due 

 allowance is made for the decrement of caloric as we rise 

 in the atmosphere, the station of S. fulgens, although 

 geographically about 20*^ from the equator, is, in point of 

 climate, the same as that of Virginia. It is therefore 

 probable that it will prove capable even of bearing our 

 winters without protection, which would be an excellent 

 quality ; but we are not aware that any person has at 

 present direct experience upon the subject. 



Mr. Graham's wild specimens have the leaves either 

 nearly green beneath, or densely covered with white down ; 

 hence it is not impossible that the S. pulchella of Decan- 

 dolle may be, as Steudel suspects, the same thing. 



Forty years ago this was cultivated in the Gardens of 

 Madrid, and yet it has at last found its way to England 

 from the New World before it lias reached us from Spain ! 

 Cavanilles called it by the name here adopted ; and we 

 are obliged, on that account, to abandon the more recent 



