MINT FAMILY 



The Scarlet Sage is one of the most brilliant red-flowered plants 

 in cultivation. The mass of color of a well-grown bed defies de- 

 scription; it is magnificent, and it is barbaric. To that wondrous 

 flame of scarlet the top of the flower stem, the bracts, the calyx, 

 the corolla, all contribute. The vivid color strikes the eye as the 

 sound of a trumpet rings upon the ear, insistent, high-keyed, per- 

 vading. 



The structure of the individual flower is interesting. Open a 

 corolla in full bloom and you will find two crescent-shaped an- 

 thers together with the two-lobed stigma at the very apex of the 

 upper lip. Extending downward is a thread-like body which 

 seems to serve no purpose. This red thread, three-fourths of an 

 inch long, is a lengthened connective which should normally bear 

 at its end the other cell of the anther but does not. In ordinary 

 flowers the connective is merely a linear extension of the filaments 

 and barely separates the two anther cells. But in all the Salvias 

 the anther cells are forced a very considerable distance apart, and 

 in this case one cell of each anther is missing. 



The Blue Salvia, Salvia plitens, bears a blossom which is as 

 vividly blue as that of Salvia splendens is scarlet. It, too, is 

 perennial where the climate permits. Native to the mountains 

 of Mexico it does not seem to thrive very well in our gardens. 



OSWEGO TEA, FRAGRANT BALM. BEE BALM 



Mondrda didyma. 



M'onarda, after Nicholas Monardes, a. Spaniard who published in 

 1571 a book containing the earliest picture of an American plant. 



A strong-growing, attractive, native perennial, bearing deep-red 

 flowers; sparingly transferred to gardens. Suitable for the wild border 

 or thickets; grows in clumps. Summer. 



Stem. — Three to four feet high, four-angled, rough -hairy. 

 Leaves. — Oblong, or lance-ovate with roundish, base, serrate, petioled, 

 fragrant. 



F/owefj.— Two-lipped, deep-red, borne in terminal or whprled heads. 

 Calyx. — Tubular, elongated, many-nerved, five-toothed. >.ivi 



37ft 



