THE BLUE SAGE, 71 



off as cuttings, and will soon strike in a temperature of 70. 

 This practice may be varied by lifting- and potting the 

 plants before the frost has defaced them, in which case 

 they must be wintered in a warm greenhouse or the cool 

 end of the stove, and have but moderate supplies of water 

 until they begin to grow freely in the spring. At the 

 time of potting, superfluous shoots may be removed and 

 struck, but the autumn is an inconvenient season for pro- 

 pagating this sal via. 



The crimson salvia (S. splendens) and the small 

 8. coccinea, are about equally well adapted for bedding 

 as S. patens, but they are all so diffuse in habit that to 

 employ them to advantage requires more than ordinary 

 taste and judgment. S. coccinea answers admirably to 

 grow from seed as an annual, as when so managed it does 

 not grow much more than a foot high, and it blooms 

 freely from July to October. 



For the greenhouse and conservatory the following 

 species of salvia may be especially recommended : The 

 narrow-leaved (S. angustifolia) , flowers blue, appearing in 

 May -, the light blue (S. azurea], flowering from August to 

 October; the scarlet (S. fulgens], a fine plant, producing 

 a grand show of scarlet flowers in August ; the white 

 patens (S. patens alba) , a variety of the plant represented 

 in the plate. It is useful as a greenhouse plant, but is 

 scarcely effective as a bedder. 



A remarkably fine group of salvias were some time 

 ago brought into notice by Mr. H. Cannell, of Swanley. 

 We happily received grand spikes of bloom of three of 

 these, and therefore can speak- of them as flowering well 

 in the autumn. Salvia Pitcheri produces a profusion of 

 flowers of the most pure and brilliant blue, and will flower 



