Spec. Plant. Willd. i. 127. Cl. 2. Ord. 1. Diandria Monogynia. Nat. Ord. Labiatae. G. 63. Corolla unequal. Filaments affixed transversely to a pedicle. Species 7. S. officinalis.1 Garden Sage. Med. Bot. 3d edit. 352.

t. 127. Officinal. Salviae officinalis folia, Edin. The leaves of

Sage.

Syn. Sauge (F.), Salbei (G.), Salei (Dutch), Salvie (Dan.), Salvia (Swed.), Szalwia (Pol.), Salvia (I.), Salvia (S.), Salva (Port.), Schalweja (Russ.), Says-elley ( Tarn.), Saulbey ( Pers.).

The common or officinal sage is a perennial plant, a native of the South of Europe, cultivated abundantly in our gardens, flowering in June. It rises about two feet in height, with a quadrangular, shrubby, branching, stem. The younger branches are whitish and downy. The leaves, which stand in pairs on footstalks, are ovato-lanceolate, wrinkled, crenate, and sometimes tinged reddish or purple. The flowers are on long terminal spikes, in six-flowered distant whorls, accompanied with ovate, acute, deciduous bractes. The calyx is striated, purplish on the upper part, and notched into three acute teeth above, and two below; the corolla is tubular and bilabiate, of a beautiful blue, variegated with purple and white; the upper lip obtuse, notched, and concave; the under three-lobed, the lateral lobes bent backwards. The filaments are affixed transversely at their middle to short pedicles, on a moveable axis, and are curved threads bearing a gland on the lower end, and on the upper a yellow oblong anther: the style is long, curved, purple, with a bifid stigma, and rising from the centre of four naked seeds in the bottom of the calyx.

There are many varieties of common sage, but their properties are the same. It is cut when in flower, and hung up in a shady place to dry.

Qualities.-The odour of sage is fragrant; and the taste warm, bitterish, and aromatic: qualities depending on an essential oil, which can be obtained separate in distillation with water. Sulphate of iron strikes a deep black colour with the infusion.

Medical properties and uses.-Sage is stimulant, carminative, and slightly astringent. The estimation in which it was held by the ancients is sufficiently well known; but it does not support the character it formerly acquired; and "salvia salvatrix naturae conciliatrix1" is very little regarded by the modern practitioner. Infusions of the leaves, if strained before too much of the bitter is extracted, prove very grateful to the stomach, when nausea is troublesome, in febrile complaints; and when drunk cold, they are said to check hectical perspiration2, and those which frequently attend convalescences. The infusion, either alone or mixed with honey and vinegar, is a well-known gargle in cases of sore throat and relaxation of the uvula. The dose of the pulverized leaves is from grs. xv. to 3 ss.; or, of an infusion made with j. of the dried leaves and O j. of boiling water, f ij. may be taken every three or four hours.