LABIATE TRIBE 33 



with butter until they be crisp, serve for a dish of meate, acceptable with 

 manie, unpleasant to none." 



A very old name for the Clary was Orvale saiivage. 



In Ci'ete, where our Garden Sage (Saltia officinalis) grows in wild abund- 

 ance on the rocks, and where its fragrance is far more powerful than in our 

 land, the leaves are annually collected by the Greeks for medicinal purposes. 

 They deem it of especial importance to gather the plant either on the first 

 or second day of May, before sunrise. They also drink an infusion of Sage 

 leaves as tea, and make sweetmeats of the galls Avhich are formed by insects 

 on one of the species common there, and which are sold in the markets under 

 the name of Sage-apples. Sage tea is still drunk in our own villages during 

 spring, as beneficial to the health, and the Chinese were said some years since 

 to prefer this beverage to their own tea, and once traded with the Dutch, to 

 the great advantage of the latter people, by exchanging with them one pound 

 of tea for four pounds of sage leaves. Many species of Sage are valued in 

 different European countries as medicinal herbs, and most of the continental 

 names are, like the botanical one of Saliia, from salvo, to save or heal. Thus 

 the French call the plant La Sauge, and the Germans Die Salhey. In Holland 

 it is termed Salie ; in Italy and Spain Salvia ; in Portugal, Salva ; in Russia, 

 Schalweja ; and in Poland, Szahvia. In Holland, the flowers of 6'. glutinosa 

 are used to gi^■e a flavour to English wines, and a good wine is sometimes 

 made in our own country by boiling the leaves and flowers of our common 

 wild Clary with sugar. This is said to have the flavour of Frontignac. All 

 the genus are wholesome and cordial, and many, by the beauty of their 

 bright scarlet or blue flowers, contril)ute greatly to the adornment of our 

 gardens. 



In the meadows of Germany several very handsome species of Salvia are 

 common wild flowers. Anna Mary Howitt, referring to the suburbs of 

 Munich, says : "You stand in fields covered with a lovely odorous mosaic of 

 flowers and deep rich grass. Here the tall Salvia rears its graceful spike of 

 Ijrilliantly Ijlue flowers. Clovers, white and red, scent the air with their 

 honeyed perfume ; the delicate eyebright, daisies, harebells, thyme, bugloss, 

 yellow vetch, the white powdery umbel of the wild carrot, and the large 

 mild-looking dog-daisies, bloom in a gay, delicious tangle." A form of S. ver- 

 benaca is found in the Channel Islands, and is sometimes described as a ' 

 separate species under the name of S. clandesfina. It is altogether a more 

 slender plant, with more purple flowers, and the corolla-tube longer than the 

 calyx. 



3. Mint (Mentha). 



* Flowers in spiked whorls, or terminal heads. 



1. Horse-mint (M. sylrestris). — Leaves almost sessile, egg-shaped, or 

 lanceolate, serrated, and hoary beneath ; spikes almost cjdindrical, scarcely 

 interrupted ; bracts awl-shaped ; calyx with sharp teeth, and very hairy ; 

 perennial: This Mint is not unfrequent in England on damp waste grounds, 

 having, during August and September, its slender spikes formed of crowded 

 whorls of pale lilac flowers, with long floral leaves. It has the strong but 

 pleasant odour common to many of the Mint family, and often grows in 



HI. — 5 



