MINT FAMILY. 350 



upper lip strongly 3-toothed, the middle tooth larger, the lateral distant, much 

 surpassing the Lower lip; corolla light blue, deeply 2-lipped, 1 in. long; upper 

 Lip 2-eleft, the segments laciniate or denticulate at the end; lower lip with small 

 crosc lateral lobes and an exceedingly large fan-shaped and Laciniately fringed 

 middle lobe ; proper filament very short. 



Inner South Coast Range valleys (Contra Costa Co. and southward) and 

 throughout the San Joaquin Valley; Southern California. June. 



2. S. columbariae Benth. Chia. Stems usually several from the base, 

 commonly simple and bearing 1 or 2 pairs of leaves and 1 or 2 whorls of 

 flowers, occasionally branching ; herbage finely pubescent, dark green ; leaves 

 mostly radical or subradical, bipinnatifid, very rugose, petioled; bracts ovate 

 or more commonly orbicular and broader than long, abruptly acuminate and 

 cuspidate-tipped, not exceeding the flowers, often purple; fruiting calyx 5 lines 

 long, oblique at the throat; upper lip arched, crowned with a pair of needle- 

 like prickles, the prickle representing the middle tooth wanting (or very 

 minute) ; lower lip very much shorter, the teeth represented by 2 shorter 

 prickles; corolla blue, little exceeding the calyx; upper lip emarginate; lower 

 lip with small lateral lobes and a larger somewhat 2-lobed middle one. 



Throughout the Coast Eanges, Sierra Nevada, and Southern California, on 

 hill and mountain slopes. Apr.-May. An infusion of the seeds was valued 

 by the Mission fathers as a remedy for fevers; the seeds also furnished the 

 ' ' finest poultice for gunshot wounds. ' ' The Pomos roasted the seeds and 

 ground them into a meal for food. 



3. S. mellifera Greene. Black Sage. Shrubby, 3 to 6 ft. high, with 

 herbaceous flowering branches very leafy at the base; leaves narrowly oblong, 

 petioled, I 1 /) to 3 in. long, crenulate, green and rugulose above, cinereous- 

 tomentulose beneath; flowering branches with about 5 rather small flower- 

 whorls; leafy bracts oblong or ovate, those subtending the upper whorls much 

 reduced ; proper bracts ovate or oblong, cuspidate ; lower lip of calyx very short, 

 the 2 teeth prickly ; upper lip arched, crowned by 3 short sharp teeth ; corolla 

 white or slightly lilac-tinged and rather small, its tube long, exserted; upper 

 lip notched; middle lobe of lower lip transversely oblong or orbicular, emargin- 

 ate and slightly denticulate, joined to the main part of the lip by a narrow 

 constriction; style and stamens little exserted; lower portion of connective in 

 fertile stamens manifest at the joint as a subulate rudiment; upper pair of 

 stamens represented by short sterile filaments, their tips approximate. — (Audi- 

 bertia stachyoides Benth.) 



Mt. Diablo and Santa Cruz Mts. southward. Apr.-May. An important 

 bee-plant in Southern California; also called Ball Sage, Button Sage and Blue 

 Sage. 



S. AFIANA Jepson. White Sage. Shrubby, 3 to 5 ft. high, the branches vir- 

 gate; leaves mostly very white above and below; corolla white, its tube very 

 short; style and stamens long-exserted. — Southern California, very abundant 

 and a famous bee-plant, producing a white honey. — (S. californica Jepson. 

 Audibertia polystachya Benth.) 



4. S. sonomensis Greene. Creeping Sage. Flowering stems almost leaf- 

 id scape-like, 4 to 8 in. high, ascending from a leafy mat-like base; leaves 



green and rugulose above, whitish with a close dense tomentum beneath, oblong- 

 or obovate-spatulate, crenulate, petioled, l 1 /' to 3i-j in. long; calyx like that 

 of S. mellifera but the prickly teeth of the larger upper lip short; corolla Light 

 violet; upper Lip short, of two erect or somewhat retrocnrvod lanceolate lobes; 



