venture to say probability, as regards very much of 
our present knowledge. But we must return to 
John Evelyn, Fellow of the Royal Society, and a 
man of eminent talent. He says, in the work to 
which we have referred, that the tops of Sage, well 
picked and washed, with the flowers, retain all the 
noble properties of the other hot plants ; more espe- 
cially for the head, memory, eyes, and all paraly- 
tic affections. In short, he says, it is endued with 
so many and wonderful properties, that the as- 
siduous use of it is said to render men immortal. 
Evelyn was really an eminent man in his day, 
but if his zeal lead away his discretion in any par- 
ticular, it will be found in his Acetaria. This little 
work is, notwithstanding, a gem to the advocate of 
vegetable diet. He quotes his friend Cowley’s lines. 
Happy the Man, who from ambition freed, 
A little Garden, little field does feed. 
The field gives frugal nature what’s requir’d j 
The Garden what’s luxuriously desir’d : 
The specious evils of an anxious life, 
He leaves to fools to be their endless strife. 
And after treating extensively of numerous salad 
herbs and modes of dressing them, he says, some 
“directions are added to shew the plenty, riches, 
and variety, of the salad garden, and to justify what 
is asserted of the possibility of living (not unhap- 
pily) on herbs and plants, according to original and 
divine instruction, improved by time and long ex- 
perience.” 
If it were requisite, the Salvia grandiflora could 
be propagated by cuttings of the young stems ; but 
its increase at the root will generally suffice. 
Hort. Kew. 2, v. 1, 54. 
