Salvia

“ Stamens pale yellow. Seeds pale brown. Poor gravelly soils, chiefly near coast. June to August.
Meadow Sage (Salvia pratensis) .
In speaking of the Bugle on page 22 we promised to say more of Labiate flowers further on. Salvia is a labiate, and of similar construction to Ajuga. S. pratensis is a rare plant, found only in Cornwall, Kent, and Oxford, from June to August. The soft wrinkled leaves have the edges cut into convex teeth (crenate) . The flowers are large and bright blue; they are borne in whorls, usually of four or five flowers, on a tall spike. ”

“ Prairie Sage (Salvia pitcheri) grows in scattered clumps throughout the central prairie region from Texas to Illinois and Minnesota. Because of its sky-blue, tubular, 2-lipped flowers, it is one of the plants most easily identified. The gray-green leaves have the characteristic sage odor and can be used for sage tea. The plants are two to three feet high and bloom from late spring to November.
Red Sage or Salvia. Indian Fire (Salvia coccinea) is a hardy plant in cultivation and blooms nearly all the year. ”

“ The clumps of Japanese Anemones, both white and rosy-grey, are full of an unfailing charm. We try to prolong their existence by snipping off the round seed-heads. One might as easily make ropes of sand.... The same service done to Dahlias is just within human possibility. The dark red-mauve variety shows an individuality which gives it great value in the autumn borders. The irregularly shaped flowers, whose narrow petals manifest an inclination to double, last longer than those of the other two kinds. Rain and wind have destroyed the beauty of Salvia Patens; it will bloom out again, however. ”

“ In the less common type, where the anterior part of the flower is more developed, as in the Ocimoideae, the stamens and style lie on the under lip and honey is secreted on the upper side of the hypogynous disk; the insect in probing the flower gets smeared with pollen on its belly and legs. Both types include brightly-coloured flowers with longer tubes adapted to the visits of butterflies and moths, as species of Salvia, Stachys, Monarda, &c.; some South American species of Salvia are pollinated by humming-birds. ”

“ When time to retire, the Indian would put at least a couple of seeds of the Salvia columbriae under the eyelids, and, with eyes shut tight to keep the seed from dropping out, he would fall asleep. As they swelled, they would move about with every movement of the eyeball and emit a gelatinous substance which gathered up every particle of sand or any other substance present, and, when removed, left the eye clear and free of any possible inflammation. ”

“ BENEATH THE SALVIAS
Beneath the salvias, where some angel slew
The favors that were granted by his god,
My heart is hidden; let thy feet be shod
With feathers plucked from my wings of crimson hue. ”

“ If, therefore, he likes the 287 above triangular spur, c d e, by all means let him keep it; but if he be on the whole dissatisfied with it, I may be permitted, perhaps, to advise him to set to work like a tapestry bee, to cut off the little bit of line of salvia leaf x y, and try how he can best substitute it for the awkward lines c d c e. He may try it any way that he likes; but if he puts the salvia curvature inside the present lines, he will find the spur looks weak, and I think he will determine at last on placing it as I have done at c d, c e, Fig. ”

“ Distribution--Canada to Georgia, west to Michigan.
Gorgeous, glowing scarlet heads of Bee Balm arrest the dullest eye, bracts and upper leaves often taking on blood-red color, too, as if it had dripped from the lacerated flowers. Where their vivid doubles are reflected in a shadowy mountain stream, not even the Cardinal Flower is more strikingly beautiful. Thrifty clumps transplanted from Nature's garden will spread about ours and add a splendor like the flowers of salvia, next of kin, if only the roots get a frequent soaking. ”

“ Salvia swarms up the ascent and on the descent, but less so than before, and on the Yonutt platform it is almost absent; Cnicus also in profusion both up and down, and on the platform Festuca triticoides begins about half-way up; Statice are common over the whole pass. Caragana in the grassy swardy ravines. On the highest point Astragalus arbuscula, the fields studded with yellow buttons of tansy, and white flowers of Stellaria; Arabidea glauca siliculosa, also common; this is rare on the west side of Hindoo-koosh, as is also Stellaria. Tansy continues in some places. ”

“ The dwarf salvias, too, grow readily from seed, and balsams, if one has room, line up finely along straight walks, the firm blossoms of the camelia-flowered variety, with their delicate rosettes of pink, salmon, and lavender, also serving to make novel table decorations when arranged in many ways with leaves of the laurel, English ivy, or fern fronds. ”

“ Would that sweet thief that stole you unaware
Have stolen it instead?
Come with me, scarlet salvias, to your home;
We are not late;
Love in the moonlight there again will roam—
There let us wait. ”

“ Blue salvias and solanums, justicias and linums are a good foundation for the garden, which, again, has paved walks, into whose cracks innumerable treasures have sown themselves. Freesias, violets, which, though not true blue, are too sweet to be ruthlessly weeded out, and forget-me-nots seem to flourish between the stones. ”

“ I often plant seeds of the climbing nasturtium in the row with the sweet peas at a distance of one seed to the fist, the planting not being done until late May. The peas mature first, and after the best of their season has passed they are supplanted by the nasturtiums, which cover the dry vines and festoon the supporting brush with gorgeous colour in early autumn, keeping in the same colour scheme with salvia, sunflowers, gaillardias, and tritomas. ”

“ The former are classified by him according to sizes, the further subdivisions being based on the structure of the skeleton, mode of propagation, number of limbs, form of the body, and on the physical character of the localities inhabited by fishes. This classification is as follows:—
Salviani. The work of the Roman ichthyologist, H. Salviani (1514–72) , is characteristic of the high social position which the author held as the physician of three popes. Its title is “Aquatilium animalium historia” (Rom. 1554–57, fol.) It treats exclusively of the fishes of Italy. ”

“ And the dance and jest go rioting on, and none of his murdering knows!”
“Ah, well, I would risk it! but whether Saville, for us it could happen so,—
Perish the thought! ’tis a sacrilege,—but never, dear love, shall we know.
I am as a bee untimely crushed ere he unloadeth his sweets,
Dead to accomplishment, effort, and joy, whose heart still cruelly beats,
Ardent, ambitious, and pulsing strong with fiery tropical heats,—
God! how I worship my art divine, my heavenly art, Saville,—
That I were rotting a grain a day, yet able to serve her still!” ”

“ If only the big brown-and-gold bumble bee, humming over the roses, could [67] have droned, ‘Sally, keep away from those mud pies.’ If only the birds, flying high in the sky, could have chirped, ‘Sally, keep away from those mud pies.’ If only Snow White, Sally’s little wooden dove, could have warned her away. But Snow White was fastened to Sally’s window-sill in the front of the house, so of course he couldn’t know what Sally was about. And Buff was asleep on the window-sill, and Tippy was tied in Aunt Bee’s cellar. There was really no one to keep Sally away from those mud pies. ”

“ Sally knows that this is expressed in him, and that he is bent on destruction, although her back is towards him. She feels his hot breath on her neck; she hears a hissing sound from remorseless lips; closer and closer he comes, and his arms are about to close around her, when she falls over a precipice, down, down, into the spreading branches of a tree, where she places her baby safely in a cradle of flowers, and watches the form of their enemy flash, like a glance of light, into the abyss, the yawning mouth of which closes upon him with a snap. ”

“ Where Kyrle and Saville and their happiness were safe from the tempest shut,
And the cheery lamp shed a kindly glow over the humble place,
And the nets and the bits of coral and spar lent it a simple grace.
“If only this cottage were ours, Saville! if this our idyl might be
Played for a white half-year divine down by the ice fringed sea!
But alas! the sable curtain must drop, and the actors perforce must flee!” ”

“ That’s right, Sally; that is spoken like a child of mine, and a good, thoughtful girl. If the Lord had told you, two years ago, that he would give you all he has sent you in that time, by the way of the Ark, if you would give a couple of skeins [88] of yarn to a fish-hawk, you would have been very glad to have done it. These are all his creatures, and he careth for them, and feeds them all. The robins, in their nests, open their little mouths for God to feed them. ”

“ Upon the melancholy shore a sea-gull or two were circling round some old black stumps of wreck that protruded from the sand; while beyond lay the dismal expanse of the western sea, without a sail upon its leaden waste of waters, so shunned by all. Dreariness, wreck, and desolation were on every side; and it seemed to Salvé that it was only a reflection of his own life. He had got to be the owner of a brig, and there it lay, what remained of it, buried in the sand. He had succeeded in making Elizabeth his own, but had he thereby added anything to the happiness of his life? ”

“ When Sally heard the order for the supper company the next night, she at once decided that her own simple meal must be quickly eaten, as she must see something of the fine things at Ingleside.
By standing on the rocks it would be easy to peep through the thin tangle near the arbor just above her head and close by the wall. It would not do to take long peeps, but she could take several for a moment at a time. Yet she must beware: a sudden gust of wind might part the slight brush, show her bright eyes, then, alas, the pleasure it might take from her! ”

“ The crew gathered round. The Irishman seized a heavy iron pump-handle as a weapon, and Salvé a handspike; and Salvé kept his word. He pulled the boots off as the other lay senseless on the deck, and took them down to the Spaniard.
In point of physical strength, Salvé was far from being the equal of many of these men, who, he knew very well, were now only looking out for an occasion to get the better of him. His only chance was to take the initiative on all occasions, and to seem the most reckless and the most careless of life, and the most eager to fight of them all. ”

“ Salvé's patience was exhausted. He had been sitting all this time squeezed up in the narrow space between the bench and the wall with people on both sides of him, preventing his getting out; but now grasping his neighbour violently by the shoulder, he sprang all at once across the table and over to the unabashed Yankee, with an irresistible feeling that, come what might, he would get out into the freedom of the open air once more. ”

“ And horses (not live ones with tails, but clothes-horses) and the same starch that is used by the Queen.
Sally wears pattens in the wash-house, and turns up her sleeves, and splashes, and rubs,
[42] And makes beautiful white lather which foams over the tops of the tubs,
Like waves at the seaside dashing against the rocks, only not so strong.
If I were Sally I should sit and blow soap-bubbles all the day long.
Sally is angry sometimes because of the way we dirty our frocks,
Making mud pies, and rolling down the lawn, and climbing trees, and scrambling over the rocks. ”

“ I've been thinking that if that wood was from an old, wrecked vessel, we might perhaps find something on it somewhere that would give us a clue."
"That's so," said Sally. "I hadn't thought of that before."
With this in mind, they entered the cave, lit the candle, seated Genevieve on the chair with a bag of candy in her lap for solace, and proceeded to their task.
"The only way to find anything is just to scrape off all we can of this mold," announced Sally. "You take one side, and I'll take the other and we'll use these sticks. It won't be an easy job." ”

“ She had undone her luxuriant hair, and had put on a languishing look, and every now and then thrummed absently on her guitar, humming gently to herself as she fixed her black eyes upon him. Salvé saw himself in a manner besieged, and felt half inclined to brush past her and escape into the garden; but it would have seemed too deliberately unfriendly. The only sign which betrayed his consciousness of the situation was the somewhat hasty way in which he puffed his cigarette.
"You really mean to leave us?" she said at last sadly, in almost a beseeching tone. ”

“ Sally did eat her luncheon, running out to the pantry only twice to see whether the icing on the cake had grown quite hard.
[6] For the cake was to be used at a party later that afternoon.
‘We will carry a little table out into the garden, Sally, under the black-cherry tree,’ said Aunt Bee. ‘You would like that better than going down to the rocks this afternoon, wouldn’t you?’
Sally, you must know, lived by the sea, and almost every day went down to play on the rocky shore. ”

“ I saw her in the spring of last year, when we were lying there with the Galatea; she was talking to the captain, for she's Norwegian—and a proud one she is, too; with hair like a crown of gold on her head, and so straight rigged that it makes a man nervous to come alongside her."
Salvé sat rapt in thought, and more absent than was polite to his friend for the rest of the evening. An idea that it might be Elizabeth had shot through him, and he could not divest himself of it, although the more he reflected the more certain he knew he ought to be that she had been married long ago to young Beck. ”

“ Your voice breaks down in a heartstruck wail at a failure abrupt and complete,
I could not survive the cruel shock,—I should drop down dead at your feet!”
“Nay now, Saville, thou art far too bold,—why, what shall it profit me
The fleecy flocks of the sky to mark, the crocus and primrose to see,
Ay, even my first love, ‘Rupert’s Trust,’ and not—O Saville! not thee?
Yet thou shalt never ask boon in vain,—I will thine almoner be,
A warden most lenient,—Go, dear heart! for a score of hours thou art free!” ”