SAGE. Salvia. A class of plants containing many species of value, whether we regard it medicinally, as a condiment, or for the splendor of its flowering varieties. As a gargle it is most useful. In China it was once regarded with favor, being used as we use tea, holding a large trade between Chinese and Dutch merchants. The old monks would seem to have thought it a specific for all human ills. Now,-a-days it is but little used, except as a gargle, and for flavoring cheese, sausage, etc. The broad-leaved, green sage, Balsamic sage, is esteemed for medical uses, and the narrow-leaved, green sage, Sage of Virtue, is the mildest in flavor. The variety most generally found in gardens is the red leaved, and the green-leaved sage, Salvia offici nalis. The cultivation is simple. The seeds should be sown in a gentle hot bed, early in spring, and transplanted, when large enough, in rows twenty inches apart by twelve inches in the row. Keep clean from weeds and cut when in bloom tor use. The plants must be covered in winter, since they will not survive freezing and thawing. Thus the bed will continue to produce several years, but it is better to renew the plantation every three years. Another plan
is to sow in drills, in May, and thin to the requisite distance, but tbe plants will be much weaker, and are not apt to furnish a cutting the first season. A subvariety of the common, green, leaved sage, and also of the red-leaved variety, have handsome variegated leaves, and must be propagated by cuttings under a moist heat, as indeed may the other varieties None of the species, however, are entirely hardy in the West. The flowering varieties are splendid objects, and flourish admirably in the open ground in the West, from June until frost, being covered with a profusion of flowers in August and Sep tember. Silvia splendens, and Alba are the varieties most cultivated, the first-named is red, the second white. S. gesneri Vra is a soft wooded labiate, and a most elegant decorative ornament for the greenhouse and conservatory, growing from two to three feet high and com pact, the leaves a bright, rich green, and well clothed with abundant deep scarlet flowers, dur ing the whole winter and spring.