SALVIA GRANDIFLO'RA. 
GREAT-FLOWERED SAGE. 
Class. Order. 
DIANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
LABIATiE. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Cultivated 
S. Europe. ) 
2 feet. 
June, Sept. | 
Perennial. 
in 1616. 
No. 420. 
Salvia is derived from the Latin salvere, to be in 
health. We owe this, like many other of our names 
to the simplers of former ages ; either to the ancient 
Greeks, or the more recent disciples of Galen, who 
esteemed it somewhat like heresy to step out of the 
vegetable kingdom to look for medicines to allay 
the sufferings of the diseased. 
Several species of Sage were in high esteem a- 
mongst the ancients, but at the present day their 
virtues, if they possess any, are nearly forgotten. 
The Salvia officinalis, or common Sage, certainly 
retains a place in the estimation of the moderns, 
but it is in connexion with the antidotes of hunger, 
and not disease. Evelyn, in his Acetaria, pub- 
lished in 1699, writes in high praise of Sage. It 
is well to cast a glance backwards, occasionally, to 
see the notions of our forefathers, to compare them 
with our own, and to consider that at a like dis- 
tance of time, in futurity, our successors may look 
upon us and our opinions, as equally trite and un- 
worthy of regard. Vanity may intrude a difficulty 
against the belief that this will be the case ; but 
none will dare to deny the possibility ; and we may 
