Salvia confertiflora : Botanical Register 1839

Botanical Register Vol XXV, Nº 29, 1839
John Lindley

This Sage is one of the many Brazilian species which deserve introduction to our gardens. It was found near Rio Janeiro by Mr. Macrae, while in the service of the Horticultural Society, and in other parts of the empire by Sellow and Pohl. It belongs to a small section of the genus with short woolly flowers, the only other species of which, as yet in gardens, is the Salvia leucantha of Mexico.

Its flowers are so bright and numerous as to render the plant a conspicuous object during the autumn months, at which time it blossoms. Whether or not it is sufficiently hardy to live out of doors in the summer is uncertain.

The figure was taken from a plant presented to the Horticultural Society by John Dillwyn Llewellyn, Esq.

The leaves have rather a heavy disagreeable smell of a peculiar nature, resembling perhaps a combination of the Dead-nettle and Sorrel.This species may be cultivated either in a greenhouse, or planted out in a rich border during the summer months. It is however seen in its greatest beauty when grown in a house which is intermediate between a greenhouse and stove;— that is, where the temperature in winter and spring is never below 55° of Fahr. It delights in a rich soil, composed of equal parts of loam and peat, mixed with a portion of manure and sand, and will require, when growing luxuriantly, a great quantity of water.

Of all the species of Salvia this is the most easy both to cultivate and propagate. If cuttings of the young shoots are inserted in sand, they will soon make strong plants.

PAXTON'S MAGAZINE OF BOTANY Vol. 6, MDCCCXXXIX

Salvia confertiflora. A really showy species of Salvia, with lengthened terminal spikes of rich orange-red-coloured flowers, which appear in dense whorls of less than an inch apart. It was first discovered by Mr. Macrae, near Rio Janeiro, that individual being then in the employment of the Horticultural Society. A plant was subsequently presented to that society by John Dillwyn Llewellyn, Esq., and this has flowered profusely. A house of a temperature intermediate between the stove and the greenhouse is recommended as the best situation for this plant, but it appears to thrive also in the greenhouse, or even if planted out in a rich border in the summer, and removed to some protective structure on the approach of autumn. The flowers are short and woolly, but the leaves are large, deep green, rugose, and serrated; the stem being also pleasingly marked with bright brown. Bot. Reg. 29.