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with inconspicuous flowers, densely covered with a shaggy 

 ashy pubescence, in general aspect resembling a thistle more 

 than any of the better-known species of sage. 

 Linnaeus first described this species in Sp. PI. 27. 1753, and 

 gives the range as " Illyria, Graecia, Africa. " The specific name 

 seems not to have had any reference to the geographical dis- 

 tribution, but to have expressed Linnaeus' belief that this plant 

 is the one referred to by various ancient authors under the name 

 of "Aethiopis." Perhaps the best-known passage is one in 

 Pliny (Nat. Hist. 27:4, 3), which may be roughly translated 

 as follows: 



"Aethiopis has many large leaves like those of mullein, and 

 is hirsute from the base. The stem is square, rough, like arcion 

 [perhaps a mullein], hollow and many-jointed; the seed is like 

 the bitter vetch (ervum) , white and paired ; the roots are numer- 

 ous, long, fleshy, soft, and sticky to the taste. The plant turns 

 black when dried and hardens, so that it resembles horn. It 

 grows in Ethiopia, the Trojan Mount Ida, and in Messenia. 

 It is gathered in the autumn and dried for several days in the 

 sun to prevent mould (situm). A decoction in vinegar is effi- 

 cacious in diseases of women, for sciatica, pleurisy and hoarse- 

 ness. That which comes from Ethiopia is the best, and it is used 

 there as a medicine." 



The resemblance to mullein seems to have impressed other 

 writers also — or to have been copied freely. Dioscorides (4: 104) 

 says that "Aethiopis has leaves like mullein, hairy and thick"; 

 and PaulusAegineta, writing several centuries later, repeats (7: 3) 

 the "leaves like mullein," and adds: "A decoction of the root 

 is used for sciatica, pleurisy, and spitting blood, and, mixed 

 with honey, for hoarseness." This latter property, suggesting 

 the familiar horehound, or the "sage tea" of our grandmothers, 

 seems to indicate a labiate plant. Whether Salvia Aethiopis 

 is really the "Aethiopis" of the ancients can perhaps never be 

 fully demonstrated; but some at least of the commentators and 

 lexicographers have followed Linnaeus in that belief. 



It may be of interest to add that another weed of this genus 

 was collected as a grain-field weed in L^matilla County, Oregon 

 by Professor M. E. Peck in the summer of 1921, and was deter- 

 mined by Mr. Bayard Long as S. sylvestris L. — a smaller and 



