SALVIA. 
——————— 
or deltoid, broadly hastate or somewhat cordate, 
or in some cases rounded at the base, and green 
and hairy on both surfaces. The flowers are dis- 
posed in long terminal racemes, usually branch- 
ing into three at the base; and stand in opposite 
pairs, each at the axil of a small linear-lanceolate 
floral leaf. The flower-stalks are short; the 
calyx is from one-half to three-fourths of an inch 
long, hairy, green, and deeply divided into two 
lips; and the corolla is between 2 and 3 inches 
long, of a rich deep blue colour, with a broad 
gaping mouth,—the upper lip long, falcate, and 
erect,—and the lower one pendent, and having 
two lateral, oblong, reflexed lobes. This is a 
greenhouse plant; and loves a loamy soil; and 
varies much in the number, size, and brilliancy 
of its flowers, according to the degree of light 
and heat in which it grows; and, if weakened, 
or allowed to become etiolated, is liable to suffer 
great detriment to its beauty by disproportion- 
ateness between the length of its racemes and 
the mutual distances of its flowers. 
Some of the most ornamental species, are, of 
hardy annuals, S. érichostemozdes, 9 or 10 inches 
high, carrying blue flowers in May and June, 
and introduced from North America in 1826,— 
S. prismatica, about a foot high, carrying blue 
flowers in June and July, and introduced from 
Mexico in 1824,—and S. horminum violacea, about 
20 inches high, carrying purple flowers in June 
and July, and introduced from the South of 
Europe toward the close of the 16th century ; of 
tender annuals, S. foliosa, about 20 inches high, 
carrying blue flowers at any or all seasons, and 
introduced from Mexico in 1827 ; of hardy bien- 
nials, S. ceratophylla, about 2 feet high, carrying 
yellow flowers in July and August, and intro- 
duced from Persia in the end of the 17th cen- 
tury,—and S. pinnata, about a foot high, carry- 
ing purple flowers in July, and introduced from 
the Levant in the former part of last century; of 
hardy herbaceous perennials, S. azurea, about 6 
feet high, carrying blue flowers in August, and 
introduced from Carolina in 1806,—S. grandiflora, 
2 feet high, carrying light blue flowers from 
June till September, and introduced from the 
South of Europe in 1816,—S. virgata, about 4 
feet high, carrying white flowers from July till 
November, and introduced from Armenia about 
90 years ago,—S. lyrata, about a foot high, car- 
rying light blue flowers in June and July, and 
introduced from North America in the former 
part of last century,—and S. crassifolia, about 2 
feet high, carrying blue flowers in June and July, 
and introduced from the South of Europe about 
44 years ago; of greenhouse herbaceous ever- 
greens, S. amarissima, about 2 feet high, carrying 
blue flowers in July and August, and introduced 
from Mexico about 45 years ago,—and 8S. pul- 
chella, about 2 feet high, carrying scarlet flowers 
throughout winter, and introduced from South 
America in 1821,—and S. mexicana, about 2 feet 
high, carrying scarlet flowers from May till July, 
SALVING OF SHEEP. 
and introduced from Mexico in the former part 
of last century ; and of greenhouse ligneous ever- 
greens, S. aurita, about 2 feet high, carrying blue 
flowers in May and June, and introduced from 
the Cape of Good Hope toward the end of last 
century,—S. formosa, about 4 feet high, carrying 
scarlet flowers from spring till the latter part of 
autumn, and introduced from Peru about 65 
years ago,—S. fulgens, 4 or 5 feet high, carrying 
scarlet flowers from May till October, and intro- 
duced from Mexico in 1829,—and &. confertifiora, 
3 or 4 feet high, carrying bright red flowers in 
autumn, and introduced about 12 years ago from 
the Organ Mountains of Brazil. But some of the 
unintroduced salvias are believed to be fully 
equal in beauty and splendour to the finest of 
the introduced ones; and probably so many as 
one hundred species or upwards, from America 
alone, may eventually be found well worthy of 
cultivation in the flower-garden. A curious hardy 
herbaceous species, which was introduced about 
50 years ago from Germany—S. glutinosa, about 
3 feet high, and carrying yellow flowers from 
midsummer to mid-autumn—is used in some dis- 
tricts of Switzerland for entangling and remoy- 
ing disagreeable insects, either by spreading the 
plants under beds, or by making them into a 
broom, and drawing this slowly and gently along 
the floor. 
SALVING OF SHEEP. The application of 
a salve to the skin and wool of sheep, in order 
to destroy vermin, and to afford protection from 
the weather. The name given to it in Scotland 
is smearing. It is practised chiefly upon the 
mountain breeds,—and more upon the blackfaced 
breed than upon the Cheviots,—and more upon 
the Cheviots than upon the improved cross- 
breeds. The salve should be thick enough to be 
capable of being taken up by the finger, and at 
the same time thin enough to be easily rubbed 
off when drawn along the skin; and it is most 
facilely and efficiently applied while the sheep lies 
upon a stool of just suitable breadth and length 
to contain its outstretched body, and while the 
operator sits astride upon a narrow projection 
from one end of the stool. The wool is parted 
longitudinally into rows, without a pile being © 
allowed to lie across them ; the salve is applied 
directly to the skin along each bared row; and 
the rows should be perfectly parallel to one an- 
other, and at such distances that the deposition 
of salve along each may reach through the bot- 
tom of the piles to the deposition along the-next, 
so that the whole skin may be equally salved and 
every individual pile anointed. No portion of 
salve, however, ought anywhere to touch the 
wool except at its roots. An experienced opera- 
tor can salve from twenty to twenty-five sheep 
in a day. 
“Salving,” says the editor of the Quarterly 
Journal of Agriculture, “was most probably 
first adopted with the view of healing or pre- 
venting that vile cutaneous disease called scab, 
ae 
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