MINT FAMILY, Labiatae. 
arranged in tiers along the stem. Sometimes there are as 
many as nine of these clusters and the effect of the whole is 
dark and very rich, especially in shady places. Thisis 
common in the hills, from San Francisco south. Humming- 
birds are supposed to be its only visitors. 
A very conspicuous, shrubby plant, 
White Ball S 
: “8° much handsomer than Black Sage, from 
Ramona nivea 
(Audibertia) three to six feet high, with many, downy, 
Lilac stout, leafy stems, woody below, forming 
Spring 
enormous clumps of pale foliage. The 
leaves are covered with pale down and are 
a delicate shade of sage-green and feel like soft thick 
-velvet, and the mauve or lilac flowers, about three-quarters 
of an inch long, are arranged in a series of very round, 
compact balls along the stiff stalks. This is a honey-plant 
and smells strong of sage, and is common in the South, 
giving a beautiful effect of mingled mauve and gray. 
Not so handsome as the last, but a very 
Wie Dace conspicuous plant, on account of its size 
Ramona poly- ; : “ 
achvn (Aude: and the pale tint of its foliage, though the 
bertia), (Salvia flowers are too dull in color to be striking. 
California 
apiana) It is shrubby and has a number of stems, 
White, lilac . ; 
: which form a loose clump from three to 
Spring : : : : 
California - six feet high, with rather leathery, resinous 
leaves, all but the upper ones with scal- 
loped edges, and the whole plant is covered with fine 
white down, so that the general effect is pale gray, blending 
with the white or pale lilac flowers and purplish buds. The 
flowers are about half an inch long and are very queer in 
form, for the only conspicuous part is the lower lip, which 
is very broad with a ruffled edge and is turned straight up 
and backward, so as to conceal almost all the rest of the 
flower. The long jointed stamens, which are borne on the 
lower lip, stand out awkwardly like horns and from one 
side of the flower’s face a long white pistil sticks out, with 
something the effect of a very long cigar hanging out of the 
corner of its mouth! All these eccentric arrangements are 
apparently for the purpose of securing cross-pollination 
from the bees, which frequent these flowers by the thou- 
440 

