232 
Ch  ia  and  Allied  Species  of  Salvia. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
■(       May,  1882. 
Salvia  verhenaca,  lAw.,  S.  Horminum,  Jaw.,  S.  viridis,  Lin.,  and  perhaps 
other  si:)eeies  of  Sonthern  Europe  are  mentioned  in  older  works  as  being 
employed  in  like  manner  and  the  small  fruit  of  which,  or  at  least  that 
of  S.  verhenaca,  was  formerly  called  oculus  Christi. 
The  peculiar  arrangement  of  the  female  reproductive  organs  of  the 
Labiata?  renders  it  difBcult  to  distinguish  their  fruit  from  a  seed. 
Labiate  plants  have  four  distinct  or,  at  the  ])ase,  slightly  united  ovaries, 
which  are  situated  upon  a  small  disk,  and  from  the  centre  of  Avhich,  at 
the  base,  arise  the  styles,  united  into  one  column,  which  forks  at  its 
apex  into  the  bihd  stigma.  The  place  of  attachment  to  the  disk  is  so 
contiguous  to  that  of  the  st}de,  and  confluent  ^vith  tlie  latter,  that  in  the 
ripe  fruit  there  is  apparently  only  one  scar  observable,  the  same  as  in 
seeds,  and  hence  these  plants  have  by  former  botanists,  even  by  Lin- 
naeus, been  mistaken  for  gymnospermous  or  naked-seeded.  Chia  is, 
therefore,  a  fruit,  an  akene  or  nutlet;  it  is  2  millimeters  (-^-^  inch)  long 
and  1*2  millimeter  inch)  broad;  the  gray,  marbled  with  brown, 
epicarp  is  covered  with  a  transparent  epithelium,  which  in  Ayater 
expands  into  a  tender  tissue,  composed  of  delicate  elongated  cells. 
The  mucilage  contained  in  this  tissue  is  probably  identical  with  that 
of  S.  hispanica  and  8.  verticillata.  which  was  examined  in  1844  by  C. 
Schmidt  (''Ann.  Chem.  Phar."  li.  42),  and  found  to  be  a  carbohydrate, 
which  may  be  converted  into  sugar.  The  medical  ]>roperties  of  chia 
depend  upon  this  mucilage,  and  are  probably  identical  \yith  those  of 
the  fruits  of  all  salvias,  from  which  water  extracts  no  other  constituent 
besides  the  one  mentioned.  Salvia  urticifolia,  Lin.,  of  the  Southern  / 
United  States  may  probably  deserve  as  much  attention  for  this  purpose 
as  any  of  the  other  species;  it  grows  in  dry  localities  and  hilly  Avoods 
from  Southern  Maryland  to  the  upper  districts  of  Georgia,  and  west- 
ward to  Alabama  and  Arkansas.  Over  400  species  of  sah^ia  being 
knoAvn,  mostly  indigenous  to  the  Avarm  temperate  zone,  and  to  subtrop- 
ical and  tropical  countries,  it  is  not  unlikely  that  many  of  these 
Avill  proA^e  to  be  more  or  less  perfect  substitutes  foi'  those  that  for 
various  causes  have  become  better  known  in  the  past. 
In  a  paper  by  Dr.  EdAyard  Palmer,  on  the  plants  used  by  the  Indians 
of  the  United  States  (see  "Amer.  Jour.  Phar.,"  1878,  p.  539  and  586),  it 
is  stated  (1.  c.  547)  that  Salvia  cohimbariw  is  the  "  chia  of  the  Mexicans 
and  Indians  of  Arizona  and  Ncav  Mexico,"  and  in  the  Botany  of  Cali- 
fornia (vol.  i.  p.  599)  Prof.  Asa  Gray  states  that  "  this  is  the  chia  of  the 
aborigines."     To  the  same  species  refers  the   follo\ying  interesting 
