496 
SALVIA CONFERTIFLORA. 
know how to apply it, we will offer a few 
hints upon the subject. 
It is easily disinfected with sulphate or 
muriate of lime ; and if mixed with its hulk 
of peat earth and dried, it will be fit to trans- 
port any where, and will be found fourteen to 
one stronger than cow-dung. 
SALVIA CONFERTIFLORA. 
(Pohl) 
THE CROWDED FLOWERED SAGE. 
The family of Salvias is a very extensive I 
one, and embraces much diversity of aspect 
and character. Thus some species are truly j 
shrubby, a greater number belong to the class 
called soft -wooded, while others again are | 
truly herbaceous ; and then, again, some spe- 
cies are perfectly hardy, and others can 
hardly be grown to their proper perfection, 
except they are submitted, during at least a 
period of their growth, to the atmosphere of a 
stove. A very great number of these spe- 
cies must claim to be regarded as highly 
ornamental garden plants. 
Salvia confertrflora, though sub-shrubby, is, 
to a certain extent, herbaceous in its habit. It 
produces, in the growing season, very stout, 
vigorous, erect stems, which bear large, broadly- 
ovate rough opposite leaves, and close whorl- 
like aggregations of flowers, usually in strong 
specimens forming as it were spikes of bloom, 
of great length ; the individual flowers are 
not large, but, from the quantity of them 
produced, have a very showy appearance ; 
they are woolly, and of a bright orange-red 
colour. The ordinary blooming season is the 
autumn. It is a native of Rio Janeiro, from 
whence it appears to have been introduced by 
the Horticultural Society of London. 
This is one of the plants that might be 
turned to account for late autumn flowering 
in the greenhouse. For this purpose its 
peculiar habit naturally adapts it, and, by 
proper management, this adaptation may be 
rendered more complete. To accomplish this, 
the plants should be kept from growing at 
too early a period of the spring ; the middle 
or end of April will be quite early enough, 
and some may be kept still later, if possible, 
by keeping them cool, and rather dry, in a 
north aspect. The plants may be started in 
cool frames, and afterwards grown out -doors 
during the summer ; or, if very large plants 
are required, they may be planted out in 
moderately rich ground for the summer, and 
then taken up very carefully and repotted in 
the autumn. There is, however, much risk 
in this plan, unless very expertly managed, 
and, on the whole, it is safer to grow the 
plants in pots throughout the summer. When 
taken up out of the ground, especially if the 
growth has been moderately luxuriant, the dis- 
turbing of the roots is almost certain to cause 
the plants to droop, and it not unfrequently 
happens from this that both the older leaves 
and the points of the shoots are lost, which is 
a great disfigurement. There is at the same 
time an advantage in planting out, if vigorous 
growth is at all an object. Two methods may 
be employed to obviate the evil referred to : 
the plants may be kept in pots, and shifted 
as necessary from time to time, the pots being 
kept plunged in the soil of the open garden ; 
or, if the plants are not kept in pots, a spade 
may be thrust down all round them at a few 
inches distance, in order to cut the roots, and 
this may be done several times in the season. 
One great advantage in the plants being 
planted or plunged in the open ground is, 
that the roots are kept in a regular state as 
regards moisture — not sometimes saturated, 
and at other times parched ; this equally 
moistened condition enables the roots to make 
good progress, and, consequently, the plants 
gain strength and vigour. 
If they are grown in pots, they must be 
repotted progressively, as their roots increase, 
until the flowering stems have attained some 
height, after which their further growth may 
