The American ^otanist 



VOL. XXX. APRIL, 1924. No. 2 



Ji wind that blows from out the south, 



Ji sparrow's song, a fleeting shower, 

 ^nd where but now a snowbank, gleamed. 



The sun lies Warm upon a flower. 



C. F. Saunders, Adapted. 



I^RAI^V 



THE PENTSTEMONS ""'ainicaw 



By Willard N. Clute 



np HOSK who confine their botanizing to the Atlantic Sea- 

 ■*• hiiarcl are Hkely to see very little of certain very attrac- 

 tive plants, known as pentstemons. They may, to be sure, 

 lind a small species with purplish white flowers which was 

 formerlv called Fcntstemoii puhcscens but now is to be look- 

 ed for under P. hirsutiis, and they may occasionally happen 

 upon a taller and S(jmewhat showier species with flowers 

 suggesting those of the foxglove and appropriately named 

 Pcnfsfenion diqitalis, but to see the really showy members of 

 the genus, one must visit the territory west of the Missis- 

 sippi. 



The genus seems to have its center of distribution in the 

 Rocky Mountain region and the number of species increases 

 as one goes westward. It is reported that there are approxi- 

 mately 150 species of pentstemon and in all this number 

 very few are unworthy of a place in the garden. A number 

 of the forms are found in Mexico, but with the exception of 

 . a single species in eastern Siberia, all arc American. 



