NEWS OF SPRING 



part of the mechanism. I find, for instance, not far from 

 my violet Sages, near the well, under a cluster of Oleanders, 

 a family of white flowers tinted with pale lilac which have 

 no suggestion or trace of a lever. The stamens and the stigma 

 are heaped up promiscuously in the middle of the corolla. 

 All seems left to chance and disorganized. 



I have no doubt that it would be possible, to any one col- 

 lecting the very numerous varieties of this Labiata, to recon- 

 struct the whole history, to follow all the stages of the inven- 

 tion, from the primitive disorder of the white Sage under my 

 eyes to the latest improvements of the Salvia officinalis. What 

 conclusion are we to draw? Is the system still in the experi- 

 mental stage among the aromatic tribe? Has it not yet left 

 the period of models and "trial trips," as in the case of the 

 Archimedean screw in the Sainfoin family? Has the excel- 

 lence of the automatic lever not yet been unanimously admit- 

 ted? Can it be, then, that everything is not immutable and 

 pre-established; and are they still arguing and experimenting 

 in this world which we look upon as set in a fatal organic 

 groove? ^ 



1 For some years, I have been engaged upon a series of experiments in the hybridiza- 

 tion of Sages, artificially fertilizing (after taking the usual precautions against any 

 interference of wind or insects) a variety whose floral mechanism has reached a high 



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