32 LABIATE 



mation, and divers other maladies, and taketh away the pain and smarting 

 thereof, especially being put into the eie one seed at a time and no more." 

 The virtues of this plant were held in such estimation, that it obtained the 

 name " Officinalis Chrisfi." An old writer, who justly disapproved of this 

 name, says : " It is so called most blasphemously," and adds, "I could wish 

 from my soul that blasphemy, ignorance, and tyranny were ceased among 

 physicians, that they may be happy and I joyful." Like all the other old 

 writers, he recommends that the seed should be placed in the eye, and left 

 there till it dropped out : the pain, he says, "will be nothing to speak of," 

 and if often repeated " it will take ofl:* a film which covereth the sight ; a 

 handsomer and safer and easier remedy it is a great deal than to tear it off 

 with a needle." 



Besides its uses in diseases of the eye, this wild Clary was recommended 

 for a variety of maladies, and seems to have shared the esteem in which the 

 Garden Sage was held, which had a high repute from remote antiquity. The 

 saying of the ancients that "No man need die who had Sage in his garden," 

 probably was the foundation of our own old P]nglish proverb :— 



"He that eats Sage in May 

 Shall live for aye. ' 



Parkinson says : "Sage is much used in the month of May fasting, with 

 butter and parsley, and is held of most to conduce much to the health of 

 man ;" and a work called the "Englishman's Doctor," printed in 1607, has 

 some lines on the subject, Avhich, if not very metrical, were doubtless deemed 

 at least truthful : — 



" Sage strengtheus the sinews, feaver's heat doth swage, 

 The palsie helps and rids of niickle woe, 

 In Latin (Salvia) takes the name of safety ; 

 In English Sage, is rather wise than craftie ; 

 Sith then the name betokens wise and saving, 

 We count it Nature's friend and worth the having." 



The mucilage covering the seed of this plant is not to be seen till the 

 seeds are moistened. Mr. Baxter says : " This mucilage I have found to be 

 composed of very minute spiral vessels, similar to those first described by 

 Professor Lindley as partly composing the mucous matter which invests the 

 seeds of Collomia linearis. These spiral vessels are very numerous in the 

 mucous matter which envelops the seeds of this Salvia. If a seed of this 

 plant is placed on a glass-slip on the stage of a compound microscope, and 

 then subjected to moisture by dropping upon it a drop or two of clear Avater, 

 the spiral vessels may be seen almost immediately to dart forth from the 

 outside of the testa, or skin, and to form a complete and beautiful radius 

 round the seed. If the seed on which this experiment has been tried is 

 allowed to dry upon the glass, the spiral vessels will remain in their extended 

 position (their bases inclosed in the mucous matter, which also dries upon 

 the glass), and may be preserved as an interesting object for the microscope 

 at any future time." 



A curious preparation of this plant seems to have been a favourite dish 

 with our ancestors. Parkinson says: "The leaves taken dry, and dipped 

 into a batter made of the yolks of eggs, flour, and a little milk, then fryed 



