SALVIA STRICTIFLORA. 
(Erect-flowering Sage.) 
Class. Order. 
DIANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
LABIATJ^, 
Generic Character.— CaZ?/,^? tubular, ribbed, un- 
equally two-lipped, permanent. Corolla tube dilated 
upwards, compressed ; upper lip concave ; lower lip 
broad, three-lobed, the middle lobe largest, cloven. 
Stamens with two divaricated branches, one only 
bearing a perfect oblong, single-celled anther. Germen 
four cleft. Style curved, with the stamens usually 
longer. Stigma forked. Seeds four, oval, in the bottom 
of the dry converging calyx. Don's Gard. and Botany. 
Specific Character. — Stem shrubby. Branches 
clothed with tomentose pubescence. Leaves petiolate, 
ovate, acute, crenately serrated, cordate at the base, 
thickish, rather fleshy, nearly glabrous. Floral leaves 
ovate, acute, membranous, deciduous. Racemes elon- 
gated. Whorls two-flowered, secund. Calyx tubular, 
striated, pubescent, having the upper lip entire, and 
the teeth of the lower lip ovate, acute. Corolla more 
than twice as long as the calyx ; tube elongated, 
incurved, tomentose outside ; lips nearly equal, hardly 
spreading : lateral lobes of lower lip very short. Geni- 
tals exserted. Style glabrous. 
The genus Salvia is well known to consist of a vast number of species, many 
of which are as remarkable for their beauty and bright colours, as others are 
uninteresting in their general figure, and void of brilliancy in the hue of their 
flowers. The latter characters are more particularly the faults of the strictly 
herbaceous species, whilst the larger number of the shrubby and suffruticose kinds 
range under the former class. 
The subdivision of the genus to which the handsome plant now figured 
belongs ( Longiflord) is almost entirely composed of shrubby species, distinguished 
by the tube of the corolla being two or three times longer than the calyx, and the 
upper lip usually extending to a somewhat greater length than the lower ; and it 
is in this section that the majority of the most choice and charming species are 
enrolled. 
Although yet so little known in the country, we learn from the Botanical 
Magazine that specimens of aS". strictiflora were flowered in England so long back 
as December, 1831. The same authority states that it was discovered by 
Mr. Cruikshanks between Yazo and Obrajillo, in the valley of Canta, in Peru ; 
and subsequently collected by Mr Matthews, at Cuesta, of Huamaritango and 
Parcochuco, Peru, where the natives distinguish it by the title of Socoencha. 
