1604 



SALTBUSHES 



SALVIA 



progress of agriculture in the arid regions. Farmers' 

 Bulletin No. 108, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, gives 19 

 pages of information about Saltbushes. 



SALT-GRASS. DisticliUs. 



SALT TREE. Halimodendron argenteum. 



SALVIA ( Latin, to keep safe or healthy; referring to 

 t'le medicinal properties of the common Sage). Labi- 

 cue. Sage. A genus of about G50 species of herbs, 

 subshrubs and shrubs, hardy and tender, including 

 Sage, Clary, Scarlet Salvia and many other interesting 

 plants. Salvia is by far the largest of the 136 genera of 

 Labiatfe described by Bentham and Hooker, and is char- 

 acterized by certain peculiarities of the stamens that are 

 connected with the cross-pollination of the lis. by in- 

 sects. It has been well said that the structure of the 

 flower in Salvia is as complicated and specialized as in 

 any orchid. Some idea of this structure 

 may be gained from Fig. 2241. The 

 bodies shown at 1 and 2 are the two fer- 

 tile anthers, or rather anther cells. The 

 points 3 and 4 indicate places where 

 other anther cells might be expected. In 

 some species of Salvia the points 3 and 

 4 are occupied by pollen-bearing anther 

 cells; in others by sterile cells. The 

 body connecting 1 and 4 is not the fila- 

 ment, but the "connective," the filament 

 being the smaller body which joins the 

 connective to the corolla. The extra- 

 ordinary length (or rather width) of the 

 connective is one of the main generic 

 characters of Salvia. In ordinary flow- 

 ers the connective is a mere thread, a 

 linear extension of the filament, and 

 barely separates the two anther cells. 

 2241. Section of In Salvia the anther cells are forced 

 a flower of apart to an exceptional distance, and in 

 Salvia splen- many cases 2 of the cells are obliterated 

 dens (X 1). or devoid of pollen. 



Showing struc- Within the generic limits of Salvia 

 ture of stamens, the variation is astonishing. The color 

 of the fls. ranges from scarlet through 

 purple and violet to azure-blue, white and even pale 

 yellow, but there seems to be no good pure yel- 

 low. Fig. 2243 indicates something of the range in 

 form of corolla and calyx. Some flowers gape wide 

 open, others are nearly tubular. In some the upper 

 lip is longer than the lower, in other cases the lower 

 lip is longer than the upper. The lower lip is always 

 3-lobed, but frequently it does not appear to be so, for 

 the lateral lobes are much reduced while the midlobe 

 is greatly enlarged, often deeply lobed, and becomes 

 the showy part of the flower. The calyx is small and 

 green in some, large, colored and showy in others. In 

 many cases, as S. leucantha, the corolla and calyx are 

 of different colors. The bracts range from minute and 

 deciduous to a larger size and more attractive color than 

 the fls. There are usually about G fls. in a whorl, some- 

 times 2, sometimes many. In spite of these and many 

 other wide variations, few attempts have been made to 

 split up Salvia into many genera, presumably from the 

 feeling that the structure of the stamens makes the 

 Salvias a natural, not an artificial group. 



Three Salvias are cultivated for their leaves, which 

 are used in seasoning and also in medicine. These are 

 the Common Sage, S. officinalis; Clary, >S'. Sclarea; 

 and <S'. Horminum. For the commercial cultivation of 

 Sage, see Sage. 



Clary is a perennial plant, but is cultivated as an 

 annual or biennial. The plants run to seed the second 

 year, after which it is better to pull up the old plants. 

 The seed may be sown in spring, in drills 12-20 in. 

 apart or in a seed bed, from which the seedlings are 

 pricked out in May. In August the first leaves may 

 be gathered and the plants will continue to yield until 

 June or July of the following year. 



Clary (S. Sclarea) and its near relative, Salvia Hor- 

 minum, are plants of exceptional interest. They are 

 cultivated for their culinary and medicinal value .and 

 also for ornament, but their ornamental value lies not 



in the fls. (which are usually insignificant) but in the 

 colored bracts or floral Ivs. at the tops of the branches. 

 The various varieties are known as the Purple-top 

 Clary, Ked-top Clar)' or White-top Clary; also Red 

 Sage and Purple Sage. The two species (S. Sclarea 

 and Horminum) seem to be much confused in our cata- 

 logues, but the plants may be separated by the follow- 

 ing characters : the upper lip of the calyx is 3-toothed 

 in S. Sclarea, and truncate in Horminum; the upper 

 lip of the corolla is sickle-shaped and compressed in 

 Sclarea, hut straightish and concave in Horminum. Ac- 

 cording to DeCandolle both of these species have large 

 and showy floral leaves. It is to be inferred from 

 Voss' treatment of the two species (in Vilmorin's Blu- 

 mengartnerei) that <S'. Horminum is the species chiefly 

 cult, for the showy floral leaves, while the name "Clary" 

 should be restricted to <S. Sclarea. There is another 

 odd feature about the floral leaves of both species. The 

 red, white or purple tops seem to be composed of sterile 

 Ivs., i. e., they do not inclose any whorls of flowers, 

 while the large bracts under the whorls of flowers are 

 green. However, DeCandolle refers to S. Sclarea two 

 pictures in B.M. and B.R. where the situation is re- 

 versed, i. e., the showy colored parts are the bracts un- 

 der the whorls of flowers and there are no sterile bracts 

 at the top. Moreover, the flowers in the cases just cited 

 are anything but insignificant, being fully an inch 

 long. 



Among the Salvias cultivated for ornament there are 

 two large cultural groups, the hardy and the tender. 

 The hardy species are mostly border plants, blooming 

 in spring and early summer. The tender species are 

 generally used for summer bedding, sometimes for con- 

 servatory decoration in winter. Many of them bloom in 

 summer and late fall, especially when they are treated 

 as half-hardy annuals. 



As regards color of flowers there are also two impor- 

 tant groups, the scarlet-flowered, and the kinds with 

 blue, purple, violet, white or variegated flowers. Of 

 the scarlet kinds S. splendens is the most called 

 for; of the blue-flowered kinds, S. jyatens is the most 

 popular of the bedding class, and S. pratensis the 

 most popular of the hardy class. S. patens probably 

 has the largest fls. of any of the blue-fld. kinds in 

 cultivation. 



The most widely used of all Salvias cultivated for 

 ornament is Salvia splendens, or Scarlet Sage. This is 

 one of the most brilliant red-flowered bedding plants in 

 cultivation. It is generally grown in large masses. It 

 does best in full sunshine, but may be used in shady 

 places to light up dark woody recesses. It should have 

 a dark background of some kind by way of contrast. 

 A well-managed mass of Scarlet Sage may be main- 

 tained in full splendor from the middle of July to frost. 

 It is propagated by either cuttings or seed. It is rather 

 troublesome to keep cuttings or plants over winter, as 

 they are particularly liable to attacks of aphis and red 

 spider. It is, therefore, important to get seed of an 

 early-blooming variety of compact habit, and to sow the 

 seed early indoors or in a frame in time to get good 

 plants to set outdoors in May. A good raceme is over 

 a foot long, with 30 or more fls. in a raceme, and 2-6 fls. 

 in a whorl, each flower being 2 in. or more long. Some 

 varieties have erect racemes, others pendulous, and 

 there are white varieties, together with some inter- 

 mediate colors. A poorly managed bed of Scarlet Sage 

 gives a few flowers in September and is cut ofl:" in a 

 short time by frost. Wet seasons delay the bloom, 

 and if the soil is too rich in nitrogen the plants will 

 make too much growth and the fls. will be late and rela- 

 tively few. The same principles of cultivation apply to 

 other tender Salvias used for bedding. Florists some- 

 times lift a few plants of Scarlet Sage before frost, pot 

 them and find that they make attractive plants under 

 glass for a month or two. One advantage that Salvia 

 splendens has over many other red-fld. Salvias is that 

 its calyx is as brilliant scarlet as the corolla. 



Special attention is called to the supplementary list, 

 nearly every species of which is distinct at first sight 

 and .seems worthy of cultivation. There are many 

 showy, bright red-flowered Salvias which seem to be not 

 cult, in America. The following are amongst the most 

 desirable and are described in the supplementary list. 



