CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE GRAY HERBARIUM OF HARVARD 
UNIVERSITY, NEW SERIES, NO, XIX. 
By M. L. FERNALD. 
Presented by B. L. Robinson, March 14, 1900. Received April 19, 1900, 
I—A SYNOPSIS OF THE MEXICAN AND CENTRAL 
AMERICAN SPECIES OF SALVIA. 
In his monograph of the Labdiatae in De Candolle’s Prodromus, Ben- 
tham (1848) recognized 118 species of Salvia in Mexico and Central 
America, several of them, however, being known only from the original 
descriptions. iam 
In the botanical portion of Biologia Centrali-Americana, Mr. Hemsley 
enumerated 135 species, but a number of them were unknown to him, 
seven have proved to be identical with others there listed, and the records 
of two are based upon their occurrence in adjacent portions of the 
United States but not in Mexico proper. Thus excluding these nine 
species, there were recorded by Mr. Hemsley, in 1887, 126 Mexican 
and Central American Salvias. 
During the past quarter century the unprecedented activity in the 
botanical exploration of those countries has brought together in Salvia, 
as in many other large genera, an abundance of material for study. 
Many of these recent collections have been critically examined, and a 
large number of species based upon them have been described. The 
collections of the past decade, furthermore, contain very many unique 
plants which cannot be referred to any of the species already published. 
These species, together with those described in the last half-century, 
since the publication of Bentham’s treatment of the group in the Pro- 
dromus, increase the number of known Mexican and Central American 
Salvias by nearly one hundred. 
In order to place before students of Mexican botany many previously 
undescribed forms and to show more clearly than could otherwise be 
done their affinities, a synopsis has been prepared of all the known 
Mexican and Central American species. In the preparation of this 
work the general divisions of Bentham have been adopted, though with 
