198 CLASS DIANDRIA. 



The lilac, although so common with us, is an exotic ; the 

 species most cultivated are the vulgaris, or common, which has 

 heart-shaped leaves ; and the persica, or Persian, with narrow 

 leaves. 



The Jasmine, of which twenty-eight species are said to have 

 been discovered, is an exotic of this class. The prim (Linus- 

 trum) is found growing wild n some parts of New England ; 

 though in general it .is seen but little in the United States, 

 except when cultivate}. In England, it is planted for fences ; 

 as it grows rapidly, it soon becomes useful for this purpose, and 

 with its green leaves and white flowers, it also gives to the 

 farms an air of neatness and taste. 



The Sage (Salvia), on account of the form of its corolla be- 

 longs to the natural family of the labiate flowers^; these are, 

 mostly, placed in the class Didynamia, having four stamens, two 

 long and two short : but in some cases the labiate flowers have 

 but two stamens ; this circumstance, according to the rules of 

 classification^ separates them from their natural family, and 

 brings them under the class we are now considering. You may 

 understand this hotter, if we compare it to taking a person from 

 his relations, to put him among strangers. But this evil 1 must 

 sometimes be borne for the sake of some attendant good ; we 

 are also obliged to submit to the necessity of occasionally sepa- 

 rating the flowers from their natural relations, because we can- 

 not turn aside from our rules of classification to accommodate 

 a few plants, which unfortunately possess those properties 

 which bring them under two sets of laws. The sage seems to 

 have made an effort to escape this misfortune, for it seems al- 

 most to have attained four, by doubling its filaments, but two 

 of these having no anthers cannot be considered as stamens ; 

 therefore the plant falls back into the second class, and is pla- 

 ced by the side of the lilac, to which it has no kind of resem- 

 blance, except in its two stamens. This plant, however, is not 

 the only one of the labiate flowers, which is removed from its 

 natural family in the 13th class ; for the rosemary and the 

 mountain mint accompany it into the second class ; but these 

 have not the two imperfect filaments which wer6 remarked in 

 the Sage. 



The genus Salvia contains one hundred and fourteen spe- 

 cies ; the one most commonly cultivated with us is the officina- 

 lis, a shrub-like perennial plant ; to this we give more particu- 

 larly the name of sage. Another species of the same genus is 

 the sclary, called Clarry, this has larger and broader leaves 

 than the common sage ; it is cultivated for its medicinal pro- 

 perties. 



