WHITE SAGE (Audibertia polystachya, Benth.). Flowers 

 white or lavender, about inch long, with a broad, ruffled 

 lower lip, the style and the 2 widely separated stamens con- 

 spicuously protruding; disposed in an ample panicle a foot or 

 more long. Leaves lanceolate-ovate, 2 or 3 inches long, these 

 and the stems silvery gray with minute woolly hairs. A 

 shrubby, aromatic perennial, from 3 to 6 feet tall, forming 

 clumps and thickets on the arid hillsides of Southern Cali- 

 fornia, blooming from April till July. 



The White Sage is perhaps the most famous of bee-plants, 

 the clear, pale honey produced from it being superfine. The 

 Indians harvested the seed for grinding into meal, and also 

 peeled the tops of the tender shoots for raw consumption. It 

 is one of the numerous Western shrubs called Greasewood. 

 To the arranger of W 7 ild-flower bouquets, the White Sage is 

 invaluable, as its exquisite gray makes a harmonious combina- 

 tion with any color. 



The genus Audibertia (the name commemorating an old- 

 time Frenchman, one Audibert) is considered by some botanists 

 as hardly enough different from Sal via to be separated from it. 

 Others have discarded the name for another Ramona. 



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