58 



THE HERB-GARDEN 



Sage will grow anywhere, and is one of the few 

 Herbs that still belong to modern everyday life. 

 Still do the cooks ask for it and the gardeners 

 bring it in ; still does it mitigate for mortal man 

 the richness of pork, ducks, and geese. ' How can 

 a man die who has Sage in his garden V is a proverb 

 of Arabia. 



' He that would live for aye 

 Must eat of Sage in May," 



is an English one. They show how the Herb has 

 been valued both East and West. The Chinese 

 cannot imagine why Europeans like their Tea- 

 leaves better than home-grown Sage - leaves for 

 brewing. Time was when exchanges were made 

 between the Dutch and Chinese — four pounds of 

 tea for one pound of Sage ! Sage, they say, makes 

 a capital gargle, and the smell of it alone is some- 

 times strong enough to make the patient giddy. 



Along with the Green Sage we like to grow 

 the Purple ; both make nice hardy plants if cut 

 back now and then. There is a variegated Sage, 

 too, of lovely colours. Meadow or Wild Sage, 

 Salvia sclarea, never seen in gardens nowadays, is 

 known about the country-side as Clary or Clear- 

 eyes, and at one time was as much valued as the 

 garden kind. Its names explain the reason why. 



