II LABIATE 337 



glabrous or slightly pubescent plant, found in ditches or 

 on river banks, with small bluish-white flowers. 



We now come to a genus which presents us with 

 one of the most remarkable pieces of mechanism to be 

 found in the whole vegetable kingdom. 



Salvia 



Two of the stamens are rudimentary or absent. In 

 the other two the halves of the anthers, instead of 

 being close together, are united by a more or less long 

 connective (Fig. 224), and one half produces little or 

 no pollen. In several of the species the access of creep- 

 ing insects is precluded by the presence of glutinous 

 hairs. There are two British Species : one, S. pratensis, 

 with a large flower and leaves mostly radical ; the 

 other, >S'. Verbenaca, with a leafy stem and small 

 flowers. 



I take S. officinalis, the common garden Sage, as an 

 example, because it is accessible to any one. The 

 flowers were well described by Sprengel, and more 

 recently by Hildebrand and Ogle.^ Fig. 221 represents 

 a young flower of S. officinalis in which the stamens 

 (a) are mature, but not the stigma (p), which, more- 

 over, from its position is untouched by bees visiting 

 the flower, as shown in Fig. 222. The anthers, 

 as they shed their pollen, gradually shrivel up ; 

 while, on the other hand, the pistil increases in length 

 and curves downwards until it assumes the position 

 .shown in Fig. 223, st, where, as is evident, it must 

 come in contact with a bee visiting the flower, and 

 would touch just that part of the back on which pollen 

 would be deposited by a younger flower. In this 

 manner self-fertilisation is effectually provided against. 

 The general form of the flower is very similar to that 

 of other Labiates. We find that, as generally, the corolla 

 has the lower lip adapted as an alighting board for 

 insects, while the arched upper lip covers and protects 



^ Pop. Sci. Itev. July 1869. 



