d,
woolly, toothed on the margin, and produced on long footstalks,--those
of the flower-stalks are oblong, sessile, and nearly entire on the
borders; the flowers are small, pale-blue, and much less abundant than
those of the Common Sage.

It is rarely employed in cookery, but for medical purposes is considered
more efficacious than any other species or variety.

COMMON OR RED-LEAVED.

Purple-top. Red-top. Salvia officinalis.

This is the Common Sage of the garden; and with the Green-leaved, which
is but a sub-variety, the most esteemed for culinary purposes. The young
stalks, the leaf-stems, and the ribs and nerves of the leaves, are
purple: the young leaves are also sometimes tinged with the same color,
but generally change by age to clear green.

The Red-leaved is generally regarded as possessing a higher flavor than
the Green-leaved, and is preferred for cultivation; though the
difference, if any really exists, is quite unimportant. The
productiveness of the varieties is nearly the same. The leaves of the
Green Sage are larger than those of the Red; but the latter produces
them in greater numbers.

GREEN-LEAVED.

Green-top.

A variety of the preceding; the young shoots, the leaf-stalks, and the
ribs and nerves of the leaves, being green.

There appears to be little permanency in the characters by which the
varieties are distinguished. Both possess like properties, and are
equally worthy of cultivation. From seeds of either of the sorts, plants
answering to the description of the Red-leaved and Green-leaved would
probably be produced, with almost every intermediate shade of color.

NARROW-LEAVED GREEN SAGE. _Mill._

Sage of Virtue.

Leaves narrow, hoary, toothed towards the base; the spikes of flowers
are long, and nearly leafless; flowers deep-blue; the seeds are similar
to those of the Red-leaved, and produced four together in an open calyx.
Compared with the Common Red-leaved or Green-leaved, the leaves are much
narrower, the spikes longer and less leafy, and the flowers smaller and
of a deeper color.

The variety is mild flavored, and the most esteemed of all the sorts for
use in a crude state; as it is also one of the best for decoctions.

"At one period, the Dutch carried on a profitable trade with the Chinese
by procuring the leaves of this species from the south of France, drying
them in imitation of tea, and shipping the article to China, where, for
each pound of sage, four pounds of