52 ON A NEWLY IMPORTED SALVIA. 



with in botanical gardens. It will, therefore, excite some 

 surprise, that this plant, growing plentifully in the same dis- 

 tricts from whence we have received the S. fulgens, should 

 never till now have been transmitted to this country ; and it will 

 be readily believed that there are yet many which would amply 

 reward the exertions of future collectors. We know, for instance, 

 of a Salvia longiflora among the Peruvian mountains, with a co- 

 rolla above five inches long; a S. speciosa in the same country, 

 with long dense spikes of a rich purple ; a white-flowered S. leu- 

 cocephala, said far to exceed the beauty of S. leucantha ; and in 

 the Mexican mining districts, the S. RegiaSessei, and pubescens, 

 with their inflated scarlet calyxes, S. phcenicea, covered with a 

 profusion of flowers of the same colour, are stated to be fully 

 equal to the S. fulgens in their general appearance ; and even in 

 South Brazil it is probable that S. persicifolia, or some other allied 

 to it, may fairly enter into competition with S. splendens. 

 Others are known to have orange or yellow flowers, of different 

 shades. Indeed, out of nearly two hundred species of American 

 Salvias, there seems reason to believe that three-fourths of them 

 maybe worthy of cultivation. 



We may hope, however, that in the S. patens, we have now 

 secured one of the most desirable of the group, more especially as 

 there seems reason to believe that it is not more tender than S. 

 fuloens. It is from the same mining districts of Guanaxuato, 

 Real del Monte, Tlalpuxahua, &c. It was there first discovered 

 by Nee, a Spanish botanist, who gave it the name of S. grandi- 

 flora, but that name having been pre-occupied, Cavanilles pub- 

 lished it from Nee's dried specimens and coloured figure, under 

 the name of S. patens. Humboldt and Bonpland again brought 

 dried specimens to Europe ; and Kunth not aware of Cavanilles 

 fio-ure, called it in his Nova Genera, S. spectabilis, for which he 

 afterwards in his Synopsis, substituted Cavanilles name, since 

 adopted by botanists. 



The Salvia patens is a perennial, growing to the height of two, 

 three, or four feet, erect and hairy. The leaves are large, ovate, 

 or deltoid, broadly hastate, or somewhat heart-shaped at the base, 

 or the upper ones rounded, green and hairy on both sides. The 

 flowers are disposed in long terminal racemes, usually branching 

 into three at the base ; along this raceme they are placed in op- 

 posite pairs, each one at the axilla, of a small linear-lanceolate 

 floral leaf. The flower stalks are short, the calyx half to three- 



