77 
SALVIA LINARIOIDES. 
(linaria-like sage.) 
class. 
ORDER. 
DIANDRIA. 
MONOGYN1A. 
NATURAL ORDER. 
LABIATES. 
Generic Character. — Calyx ovate, tubular or carnpanulate, bilabiate : upper lip entire or tridentate : 
lower one bifid : throat naked inside. Corolla with an enclosed or exserted tube, which is equal, 
ventricose, or widened, sometimes furnished with a ring of hairs inside, sometimes naked, or some- 
times furnished with two teeth or processes on the lower side at the base : limb bilabiate ; upper 
lip erect, rarely spreading, straight or falcate, entire or emarginate : lower lip spreading, shorter or 
longer, with the lateral lobes oblong or roundish, spreading, refiexed or twisted erectly, the middle 
lobe usually the broadest, entire or emarginate. Rudiments of superior stamens wanting, or small 
and club-shaped : lower two always fertile, inserted near the throat of the tube ; filaments short, 
horizontal, rarely erect, articulated with the anther at top, and usually drawn out beneath the 
articulation, rarely almost continuous. Anthers dimidiate ; connective elongated, linear, articulated 
transversely with the filament, ascending under the upper lip of the corolla, and bearing at the top 
a linear, adnate, or versatile fertile cell, and deflexed or erect behind, and sometimes bearing another 
smaller cell which is either fertile or deformed, and empty ; free, but usually combined together, or 
connate in various ways. Disk of ovarium glanduliferous in front. Style ascending, bifid at top : 
lobes sometimes subulate, equal, or the superior one is longest, and sometimes the lower one or both 
are rounded, dilated, and flattened. Stigmas, for the most part, minute, terminal, or in the larger 
part running along the lobes of the style. Achenia ovoid, triquetrous, dry, glabrous, usually very 
smooth. — Don's Gard. and Botany. 
Specific Character. — Plant shrubby, evergreen, smooth, growing about a foot high, and branching very 
freely. Leaves opposite, scarcely petiolate, entire, approximating to a spatulate form, obtuse, very 
slightly crenate, much and distinctly reticulated ; upper ones simply ovate. Calyx with five nearly 
equal acute segments, green, with brown margins. Flowers spicate, verticillate, mostly three in a 
whorl. Corolla two-lipped ; upper lip ascending, cucullate, hairy ; lower one distant, drooping, 
with two short oblong lateral lobes, and deeply divided at the extremity. 
There are not many genera comprising more interesting plants than Salvia ; 
although, with the exception of a few half-hardy kinds, our gardens owe little of 
their enchantment to its aid. If we omit the brilliant S. patens, and two or three 
of the smaller species, literally nothing is known of the numbers of blue-flowered 
sorts enrolled in botanical catalogues. "We encounter there almost a score of names 
of dwarf shrubs, with blue blossoms, but cannot tell where to seek for the majority 
of their living representatives ; unless it be in some ancient domain, the proprietor 
of which still remains uninfected with the puerile passion for novelties. 
Little, we fear, can at present be done for the revival and reinstalment of these 
delightful objects ; and we can only lament their loss, especially of the greenhouse 
species. Of all plants adapted to the last-named structure, the most ornamental 
are those dwarf shrubs which possess a certain degree of symmetry of parts, and 
bear a moderate quantity of showy flowers. They may be placed in any position 
without detraction, and can be gazed on from every quarter with the same degree 

of pleasure. Their aspect is neat at all seasons ; most alluring, of course, when 
