SAGE 
735 
1 ® 
A bush of California purple sage. 
and the other purple. The foliage of the 
white sage is grayish white and the flowers 
are also white. The black and purple sages 
are bushy shrubs very leafy at base, but 
the white sage has longer stems and is less 
bushy. The purple sage is much larger 
th an the black sage and is sometimes six 
feet tall. The white sage grows on the flat 
mesa lands, while the black and purple 
sages are abundant on the foothills and 
the sunny slopes of the canyons. 
Black Sage (Salvia mellifera ).—Also 
called button sage and blue sage. The black 
sage is a shrubby plant 3 to 6 feet tall, 
with oblong leaves, dark green above and 
woolly beneath, and numerous flowering 
branches, which bear about five dense 
whorls or “buttons” of flowers. The cor¬ 
olla is 2-lipped, white or pale purple, and 
rather small. The whorls, the larger of 
which are about an inch across, diminish 
in size toward the tip of the stalk, and in 
fading the flowers turn dark, but do not 
fall from the bushes. 
The honey flow lasts from the middle of 
March, or the first of April, until about 
the first of July. The crop is unreliable 
every other year, and there is a total failure 
once in three or four years. Every fifth 
year a large crop may be expected, and if 
the rainfall has been ample a fair surplus 
is sometimes obtained three years in suc¬ 
cession. The black sage does not yield nec¬ 
tar freely unless there has been at least ten 
inches of rain during the winter, followed 
by a clear warm spring. The rainfall varies 
greatly in different years, presenting great 
extremes, but frequently it is less than 12 
inches; in 1882 there was only, 2.94 inches, 
while in 1905 it amounted to 22.12 inches. 
