s. 



SAG-E {Salvia)— 'd geneial name for 

 white sage, bkick sage, and button sage, in 

 California. These honey-bearing plants also 

 belong to the Lahiatce., or mint family. The 

 word "■ labiate'' means lip-shaped; and on 

 looking closely you will see that plants be- 

 longing to this family have blossoms with a 

 sort of lip on one side, something like the 

 nose to a pitcher. Many of this family, such 

 as Catnip, Motherwort, FiGWORT, Gill- 

 ovER-TnE-GROUND,have already been men- 

 tioned as honey - plants, and the number 

 might be extended almost indefinitely. The 

 sage we have particularly to do with is the 



white mountain sage of California; and we 

 do not know that it would be far out of 

 the way to call this one of the most impor- 

 tant honey-plants in the world. The crops 

 of honey secured from it within the past 25 

 years have been so immense that fine sage 

 honey is now offered for sale in almost all 

 the principal cities of the world, and a nice 

 sample of well -ripened California honey, 

 whether comb or extracted, is enough to call 

 forth exclamations of surprise and deli- 1 ( 

 from any one Avho thinks enough of son ■ 

 thing good to eat, and pleasant to the taste, 

 to commit himself so far. We well remej; 

 ber the first taste we had of the mouutain- 



A BU.SII OF CALIFORNIA BUTTON SAGE. 



