Clary. Loud

Clary Sage. Salvia sclarea.

Clary is a hardy, biennial plant. It is indigenous to the south of Europe, and has been cultivated in gardens for upwards of three centuries. The radical leaves are large, rough, wrinkled, oblong-heart-shaped, and toothed on the margin; stalk two feet high, four-sided, clammy to the touch; flowers pale-blue, in loose, terminal spikes; seeds round, brownish, and, like others of the family, produced four together,—they retain their vitality two years.

Sowing and Culture.—It is generally grown from seeds, which are sown annually in April or May, in drills fifteen or eighteen inches apart, and half or three-fourths of an inch deep. When the young plants are two or three inches high, thin them to ten or twelve inches apart, and treat the growing crop in the usual form during summer. The leaves will be in perfection in the ensuing autumn, winter, and spring; and the plants will blossom, and produce their seeds, in the following summer.

Use.—The leaves are used for flavoring soups, to which they impart a strong, peculiar flavor, agreeable to some, but unpleasant to most persons. It has some of the properties of Common Sage, and is occasionally used as a substitute.

The plant is seldom employed in American cookery, and is little cultivated.