Wild English Clary
salvia verbenaca

AKA
Vervain Sage
Oculus Christi

PARTS USED
Leaves and Seeds

Salvia verbenaca, Wild English Clary,
or Vervain Sage, is native
of all parts of Europe and not uncommon
in England in dry pastures and on roadsides,
banks and waste ground,
especially near the sea, or on chalky soil.

It is a smaller plant than the Garden Clary,
but its medicinal virtues are more powerful.

MEDICINAL USES
'A decoction of the leaves,'
says Culpepper,
'being drank, warms the stomach,
also it helps digestion and scatters
congealed blood in any part of the body.'

This Clary was thought to be more efficacious
to the eye than the Garden variety.

'The distilled water strengthening the eyesight,
especially of old people,' says Culpepper,
'cleaneth the eyes of redness
waterishness and heat:
it is a gallant remedy for dimness of sight,
to take one of the seeds
of it and put it into the eyes, and there
let it remain till it drops out of itself,
the pain will be nothing to speak on:
it will cleanse the eyes
of all filthy and putrid matter; and repeating
it will take off a film
which covereth the sight.'

DESCRIPTION
perennial root is woody, thick and long,
stem 1 to 2 feet high, erect
and with leaves in distant pairs,
the lower shortly stalked, and the
upper ones stalkless.

Radical leaves lie in a rosette and
have foot-stalks 1 1/2 to 4 inches long,
their blades about the same length,
oblong in shape, blunt at their ends and
heart-shaped at the base, wavy at the margins,
which are generally indented by five or six
shallow, blunt lobes on each side,
and their surfaces much wrinkled.
whole plant is aromatic, especially when rubbed,
and is rendered conspicuous by its long spike
of purplish-blue flowers, first dense,
afterwards becoming rather lax.

Whorls of the spike are sixflowered,
and at the base of each flower are
two heart-shaped, fringed, pointed bracts.
calyx is much larger than the corolla.
plant is in bloom from June to August.
seeds are smooth, and like the Garden Clary
produce a great quantity of soft,
tasteless mucilage, when moistened.

Because, if put under the eyelids
for a few moments, the tears dissolve
this mucilage, which envelopes any
dust & brings it out safely,
old writers called this plant
'Oculus Christi,' or 'Christ's Eye.'


Magic


artemisia spinescens
artemisia tridentia
salvia apiana
salvia officinalis
salvia sclarea
salvia verbenaca

estrogen-like-properties
natural astringent