Mint Family 343 



5. SALVIA L. 



Herbs or Buffrutescent plants, aromatic and bitter, 

 with clustered usually showy flowers. Calyx bilabiate, 

 its upper Lip usually 3-toothed or entire, the lower 

 3-cleft. Corolla deeply 2-lipped, erect, entire, emargi- 

 nate or 2-lobed, usually concave, the lower spreading, 

 its middle lobe often emarginate. Anther-bearing sta- 

 mens 2, the posterior pair wanting or rudimentary ; fila- 

 ments usually short ; connective of the anthers trans- 

 verse, linear or filiform, bearing a perfect anther-sac on 



its upper end, its lower end dilated, capitate or s e- 



times bearing a small or rudimentary anther-sac. Ovary 

 deeply 4-parted : style 2-cleft. Nutlets smooth, usually 

 developing mucilage and spiral tubes when wetted. 



1. S. carduacea Benth. (Thistle-sage.) Rather stout erect 

 annual, 2-5 dm. high; stem with a cluster of ample sinuate- 

 pinnatifid spinulose-toothed leaves at base, these and the whole 

 plant white-woolly and thistle-like; flowers in 1-4 dense head- 

 like verticillate clusters, these 2-3 cm. broad, equalled or sur- 

 passed by the ovate-lanceolate j^ectinate-toothed bracts; calyx 

 long- woolly, many-nerved ; corolla light blue, 2.5 cm. long ; upper 

 lip erose-denticulate and cleft; lower with a large flabelliform 

 fimbriately many-cleft middle lobe; filaments very short ; lower 

 arm of the long filiform connective bearing a polleniferous anther- 

 cell. 



Occasional in sandy soil in all the valleys and in the foothills. March- 

 May. 



2. S. Columbariae Benth. (Chia or Sage.) Slender annual, 

 branching and leafy below, 2-5 dm. high, naked and peduncle- 

 like above, more or less grayish pubescent with rather short re- 

 flexed hairs ; leaves rugulose, 1-2-pinnatifid into toothed or incised 

 divisions ; flowers in 1-several dense verticillate clusters, these 

 about 1 5-2 cm. broad, scarcely equalled by the rounded bracts; 

 bracts tipped with a slender awn, sparsely ciliate on the margins; 

 calyx-lobes purplish tipped, the upper lip large, arched, tipped 

 with a pair of partly connate short-awned teeth ; corolla deep 

 blue, hardly exceeding the calyx, the upper lip small, notched, 



