The Lemon-scented thyme is a variety of our native spe cies above mentioned. It is sometimes also cultivated, be ing in request for flavouring particular dish's.
Sage.
403. Sage (Salvia officinalis, L. ; Diandria Monogynia ; Labiate, Juss.) is a native of the south of Europe, which has very long been an inhabitant of our gardens. It is a branched shrub, about two feet high ; the !caves arc wrinkled, green, cinercous, white, or tinged with dusky purple ; flowers terminal, in long spikes; of a blue colony. Several varieties are cultivated : Red or purple sage, and Green sage; and each of these with variegated leaves, forming ornamental plants in the flower-border. There is a small-leaved green variety, called Sage of Virtue ; and there is a Broad-leaved balsamic sage.- The :red is the sort preferred for culinary purposes, but the green is also em ployed. The leaves are used in stuffings and sauces for many kinds of luscious and strong meats. Of sage of vir tue the decoction called Sage-tea is usually made ; but it is equally good from the broad-leaved or the common green. The plants do rot endure in good condition for more than three or four years ; but they are easily propa gated by slips in the spring, or by cuttings when the SUM MCI' is advanced. The cuttings should be five or six inches long, stripped of all the lower leaves, and plunged nearly to the top in the earth, being at the same time, well watered. The lighter and poorer the soil, the better is the sage, and the more surely do the plants stand the winter. In July or August some parcels of sage twigs are com monly collected, and hung up in papers for winter use; but the leaves on the plants remain green through the winter, and a few may occasionally be gathered without doing injury.
Clary.
409. Clary (Salvia sclarea, L.) being of the same genus with sage, may here be noticed. It is a biennial plant, a native of Italy. The lower leaves are very large. the stem is about two feet high, clammy to the feel ; the flowers are in loose terminating spikes, composing a horls, and of a pale blue colour. Clary was very eally cultivated in En glish gardens, having been accounted medicinal. It is sometimes used in soups, but its very strong scent is not agreeable to many. A considerable bed of Clary is seldom to be seen in gardens, excepting when it is intended to make Clary wine. For this purpose, in dry weather, the flowers ace gathered ; some employ the w hole spikes, and others carefully separate the blossom from the calyx.
Most generally, Clary flowers arc used only for giving fla vour to home-made wines, being thought to impart some thing of the frontignac zest. The plant is propagated by seeds sown in the spring, and transplanted in the summer months at fifteen inches apart. Next year they yield their flowers; and if a few plants be left, plenty of seed may be procured.
Mints.
Several species of mint (Mentha, L. ; Didynamia Gum nospermia ; nat. ord. Labiate) are cultivated in gardens; all of them indigenous to Britain, and hardy perennials. The principal kind is, 410. Spearmint, (M. viridis, L.) This is not a common native plant ; it is figured in ec English Botany," t. 2424.
The young leaves and tops are a good deal used in spring salads in England ; they also form an ingredient in soups, or, more frequently, are employed to give flavour, being boiled for a time and withdrawn. They are also shredded down, and mixed with sugar and vinegar as a sauce to roasted meat, particularly lamb. A narrow-leaved and a broad-leaved sort are cultivated in gardens ; and some va riegated kinds are considered as ornamental plants, par ticularly a reddish variety called Orange-mint.
4 II. Pe/0(7min/, (M. i:Orrna, L.) is likewise a rare na tive, figured in English Botany, t. 687. A few plants are sufficient in a garden, it being scarcely used but for distilling.
412. Pennyroyal, (M. pulegium, L.) figured in English Botany, t. 1026, is sometimes cultivated ; but a few plants are sufficient.
All of these mints delight in a moist soil. Spearmint and peppermint are readily propagated, by parting the roots in autumn, by making slips in spring, or by means of cuttings during summer. Pennyroyal is easily increas ed by its creeping and rooting stems. Stalks of spearmint are often dried in the latter end of summer, when the plant is cooling in flower, and kept for winter use; but unless the drying be gradually accomplished, and in the shade, much of the flavour escapes. Young mint leaves, how ever, may be had at any time of the winter or early spring, by setting a few roots in flower-pots in the autumn, and re moving some of these into the corner of a hot-bed, or of the stove, some short time before the leaves be wanted.