52 SALVIA BICOLOE. 



introduced into this country as early as 1793, but appears to have been almost 

 entirely lost, until its re-introduction, about ten years since, from the North of India, 

 by Messrs. Standish and Noble, Bagshot. 



The loss of this and many other valuable hardy plants, is, no doubt, to be 

 attributed to the commonly-received opinion — acted upon, at least, if not really 

 entertained — that hardy perennials require only to be planted in the border, and may 

 then be left to take their chance, without further attention. So erroneous a practice 

 cannot be too soon banished from our gardens ; and we have no doubt that, were a 

 tithe of the care lavished on the bedding plants now so much employed for 

 decorating the parterre in summer, bestowed on some of our best perennials, they 

 would amply repay their cultivator for such attentions. 



The utmost civility they receive is, perhaps, a chopping round with the spade in 

 the spring ; the central and older parts of the stool being allowed to remain, while 

 the more healthy and vigorous fragments are not unfrequently thrown away as 

 superfluous ! When a herbaceous plant is divided, the shoots proceeding from the 

 outer portion of the root should alone be replanted, and, in every case, in fresh soil. 

 It is also highly desirable to save seed each autumn, if possible, as we are thus 

 enabled to raise a stock of seedlings, which are usually more vigorous than those 

 plants originated by cuttings or divisions of an older specimen, and are also ensured 

 against the risk of loss from the severity of the season, or the other ills to which 

 plants, in common with poor humanity, are heir to. 



The Salvia bicolor may be readily increased, either by division of the roots in 

 spring, by cuttings early in summer, or by seed, which generally ripens freely, but 

 which must be gathered just before it is fully mature, or like that of the S. patens, 

 it falls from the nodding calyx. 



It should be sown on a gentle hot-bed early in spring, and the seedlings, when an 

 inch or two high, be transferred singly to small pots of light soil, and subsequently 

 shifted into larger, until the plants are fit for turning into the borders in May. 

 They will usually flower the first season, as is the case with nearly all the Salvias, 

 though not, indeed, so early as older plants. "We have, on more than one occasion, 

 raised seedlings of S. patens, which grew more vigorously, and flowered more 

 profusely the first season, than specimens preserved through the previous winter. 



In the absence of a hot-bed, we have no doubt that seeds of our present subject 

 would readily vegetate, if sown in a warm border about the end of April ; especially 

 if assisted by a hand-glass, or protected at night from frost and snails, by having a 

 flower-pot turned over them. 



There are many other species of Salvia not commonly grown, which are equally 

 deserving of attention with the S. bicolor, the genus containing, indeed, not les3 than 

 two hundred species, a considerable number of which are tolerably hardy. Those 

 mort generally found in cultivation, have chiefly flowers of various shades of purple, 



