Regarding the species, under miscellaneous intelligence in 'The Floricultural Cabinet and Florists Magazine' it says:
"Seeds of this fine species were sent to this country from Mexico by Mr Tweedie. Mr Lowe of the Clapton Nursery has been successful in raising a plant,
which we saw in bloom in the open border during last summer. The plant was near two feet high, and appeared to have had a spike of flowers at least
one foot long. The spike appeared to have more than five or six flowers expanded at once, but even before expanding they produced a fine effect."
In an article in the same volume, G. Bentham writes:
"The richness and variety of colouring observable in the numerous species of Salvia, which adorn the mountains of South America, and Mexico, have long been known
to botanists, but it has happened that few of them have hitherto found their way into our gardens. The Salvia splendens fulgens, Grahamii, and Mexicanii
occupy, it is true, the place in our collections they so eminently deserve, and some few others of considerable beauty, such as S. leucantha, leonuroides,
angustifolia &c. are occasionally to be met with in botanical gardens. It will, therefore, excite some surprise, that this plant, growing plentifully
in the same districts from whence we have received the S. fulgens, should never till now have been transmitted to this country; and it will be readily
believed that there are yet many which would amply reward the exertions of future collectors. We know, for instance, of a Salvia longiflora among the
Peruvian mountains, with a corolla above five inches long; a S. speciosa in the same country, with long dense spikes of a rich purple; a white flowered
S. leucocephala, said far to exceed the beauty of S. leucantha; and in the Mexican mining districts, the S. Regia Sessei, and pubescens, with their inflated
scarlet calyces, S. pheonicea, covered with a profusion of flowers of the same colour, are stated to be fully equal to the S. fulgens in their
general appearance; and even in South Brazil it is probable the S. persicifolia, or some other allied to it, may fairly enter into competition with
S. splendens. Others are known to have orange or yellow flowers, of different shades. Indeed, out of nearly two hundred species of American Salvias,
there seems reason to believe that three-fourths of them may be worthy of cultivation.
We may hope, however, that in the S. patens, we have now secured one of the most desirable of the group, more especially as there seems reason to believe
that it is not more tender than S. fulgens. It is from the same mining districts of Guanaxuato, Real del Monte, Tlalpuxahua, &c.
It was there first discovered by Nee, a Spanish botanist, who gave it the name S. grandiflora, but that name having been pre-occupied,
Cavanilles published it from Nee's dried specimens and coloured figure, under the name S. patens. Humboldt and Bonpland again brought
dried specimens to Europe; and Kunth not aware of Cavanilles figure, called it in his Nova Genera, S. spectabilis, for which he afterwards in his Synopsis,
substituted Cavanilles name, since adopted by botanists.
The Salvia patens is a perennial, growing to the height of two, three, or four feet, erect and hairy. The leaves are large, ovate, or deltoid, broadly hastate,
or somewhat heart shaped at the base, or the upper ones rounded, green and hairy on both sides. The flowers are disposed in long terminal racemes, usually
branching into three at the base; along this raceme they are placed in opposite pairs, each one at the axilla, or a small linear-lanceolate
floral leaf. The flower stalks are short, the calyx half to three-quarters of an inch long, hairy, green, and deeply divided into two lips -
the upper one entire, the lower deeply two-cleft. The corolla, of a rich blue, between two and three inches long, is remarkable for its broad gaping mouth,
the upper lip being long, falcate, and erect, enclosing the stamens and pistil; the lower lip hanging with two lateral oblong reflexed lobes,
and the middle one very broad and emarginate.
The S. patens will probably thrive best under the same treatment as that which succeeds with S. fulgens, and like that plant it will be found
to vary much in the size, the brilliancy, and the number of flowers, according to the temperature and light in which it is grown.
Particular care should be taken not to weaken the plant, or suffer it to become etiolated, in order that the raceme may not lengthen too much,
and increase the distance between the flowers.
We owe this splendid addition to our gardens to the exertions of John Parkinson, Esq. her Majesty's consul at Mexico, who transmitted seeds to this country
early last year; and it was raised and first flowered in August last by Mr. W. B. Page, Nurseryman, Southampton. It has also been raised by
Messrs. Low, Clapton, and Mr. Pontney, nurseryman at Plymouth."
|
