JULY. 151 



for dishes. Tt grows Avild in the south ot 

 Europe. 



There are betweea one and. two hundred dis- 

 tinct species of sage in gardens, and the tints of 

 their bkie, purple, scarlet, white, or yellow 

 flowers, are very bright. The apple-bearing 

 sage, {Salvia pomifera,) with large azure blos- 

 soms, is among the handsomest kinds. This 

 plant is subject to the puncture of an insect, 

 which produces excrescences as large as oak- 

 galls, and which contain an acid aromatic juice. 

 These apples are much valued as food in the 

 isle of Crete, where they are sold in the mar- 

 kets. Our common garden sage is also, in 

 that island, covered with these substances, and 

 they are called sage-apples. In all the IMedi- 

 terranean isles, different kinds of sage are 

 abundant. Dr. Clarke observes, too, that they 

 flourish on the south coast of Crimea, and says 

 that there the sage of our kitchen garden is 

 the principal spontaneous production of the 

 rocks and mountains. He observed, that here, 

 as in the isles of the Archipelago, the sage 

 plants attained to a very considerable size, 

 beinor tall enoufrh to be ranked as shrubs. 



Several of our cultivated species are shrubs, 

 as is the case in the bright scarlet kind, termed 

 the shining-leaved salvia, {Salvia formosa,) 

 which is a native of Peru. Some lovely spe- 

 cies, as the tooth-leaved sage, have v,-hite flow- 

 ers. One of the most ornamental is the fulgid 

 sage, {Salvia spJcndcns,) which is a native of 

 Mexico. The gold-flowered sage, a native of 



