406 



LABLA.TAE 



Salvia VEKBENACA L., Sp. PI. 25 (1753), type European. Eye-seed. Perennial herb, the stems 

 1 to 2 feet high, villous; leaves chiefly basal, petioled, subglabrous, the blades ovate, sinuately 

 lobed, denticulate, 2 to 4 inches long, the cauline sessile ; flowers in a panicle ; calyx 3 lines long, 

 accrescent; corolla magenta, inconspicuous, 4 lines long. — Adventive from Europe, waste places 

 and vacant lots: Berkeley, first noticed by S. B. Parish in 1921. 



Salvia aethiopis L., Sp. PI. 27 (1753), "habitat in Illyria, Graeeia, Africa." Plants 1 to 3 

 feet high, often bushy ; herbage tomentose, more or less glabrate ; leaves mostly basal ; leaf -blades 

 ovate to orbicular in outline, irregularly serrate and shallowly lobed, 3 to 8 inches long; flowers 

 in a terminal widely spreading panicle, the branches of the panicle with distinct whorls of flowers, 

 the bracts conspicuous, suborbicular, abruptly subulate-spinose at apex; corolla white, the middle 

 lobe of lower lip saccate. — Introduced from the Old World, in fields, streets and ditchbanks of old 



towns, 4000 to 4500 feet; Lassen Co. (Susanville, 

 T. Brandegec, in 1892) and Plumas Co. (Greenville, 

 Clemens, inlQXQ ; Indian Valley, £as<u)ood, in 1927). 



5. S. spathacea Greene. Canon Sage. 

 (Fig. 428.) Coarse herb with erect simple 

 stems lYo to 314 feet high; herbage (espe- 

 cially the stems and petioles) very viscid and 

 glandular-pubescent or -villous; leaf -blades 

 broadly oblong-ovate, at base broadly trian- 

 gular-cordate or -truncate, more or less 

 doubly creuate or crenulate, upper surface 

 dark green and rugulose, under surface 

 whitened with a close short tufted tomentum 

 (obscuring the minute red glands), 4 to 8 

 inches long, on petioles 2 to 3 inches long or 

 some of the cauline sessile; whorls of flowers 

 5 to 22, subtended by broadly ovate or ovate- 

 lanceolate membranous purplish bracts ; ca- 

 lys. strongly veined, laterally compressed but 

 somewhat inflated, 1 inch long or over, % 

 inch wide at the broadest part, spathe-like, 

 deeply slit in front between the two ctispi- 

 date-tipped teeth, the upper concave lip 

 much larger, 3-dentate with the middle tooth 

 largest ; corolla crimson, I14 to lYz inches 

 long ; upper lip short, nearly erect, subdel- 

 toid, emarginate ; lower lip spreading, the 

 lateral lobes short, triangular, acute, the 

 middle lobe much developed, broadly obcordate, 4 lines broad ; stamens much ex- 

 serted; lower fork of the connective capillary, 1 line long; rudiments of sterile 

 stamens obvious. 



Chaparral hillslopes and by streamlets in caiion bottoms, 10 to 2000 feet ; Vaca 

 Mts. ; coastal Marin Co. ; South Coast Ranges from Contra Costa Co. to San Luis 

 Obispo Co. ; coastal region from Santa Barbara Co. to Orange Co. Apr. -May. 



Field note. — Salvia spathacea is one of the more remarkable plants in the Californian flora. 

 While having a fairly wide distribution in the coastal region it is nowhere abundant. Often de- 

 stroyed by the advancing settler, it has the capacity on clearings to reproduce freely by root-crown 

 sprouts. The ample leaves are borne in a dense zone on the lower part of the erect stem ; in age 

 they turn down, forming a reversed tuft, — that is, when the plant is in the fruiting stage. The 

 folk generally admire its form, but even sedate botanists remember its richness of color and a 

 certain opulence of habit in contrast with its chaparral habitat. 



Locs. — Vaca Mts.: Weldon Caiion, Jepson; Gates Caiion, Jepson 553. South Coast Ranges : 

 Mt. Diablo, Bioletti; Colraa Caiion, n. San Mateo Co., Jepson 9107; Nacimiento River, w. of .Tolon, 

 Monterey Co., Jepson; Port Harford, San Luis Obispo Co., N. K. Berg. S. Cal. : Surf (5 mi. s.), 

 Santa Barbara Co., H. S. Ferris 7575; Caiiada del C;ipitan, Santa Barbara coast, Jepson 11,910; 

 San Marcos Pass, Santa Inez Mts., Jepson 12,142 ; Rattlesnake Canon, Santa Inez Mts., Jepson 

 9143; Ojai Creek, Ventura Co., Wood 4" Jones; Mandeville Cation, Santa Monica Mts., Clolcey 4" 

 lempleton 4481; Sherman, Los Angeles Co., Braunton 365 ; Orange Co. (Bull. S. Cal. Acad. 2fi:21). 



Fig. 

 a, leaf, 



X 114 



X 2. 



428. Salvia spathacea Greene. 

 X Vi;l>, fl- branchlet, X % ; c, fl., 

 d, stamen, X 2; e, sterile filament. 



