£ 
PENTSTEMON. 
313 
—— 
PENTSTEMON. 
Fig. 41.—Hooked Stick for training prize 
Gooseberry Bushes; length two feet. 
bed in a regular flower-garden, and 
for other similar purposes. 
Pe.Larco'niuM.—See GeEra‘NIuM. 
Pevuiirory, Common. — Pyre- 
thrum Parthénium. 
Pewuirory or Spain.—A/nthemis 
Pyrcthrum.—See A'nTHEMIs. 
Peo‘r1a.—A_ curious variety of 
the common Toad-flax.—See Lina'- 
RIA. 
Pentste‘mon. — Scrophularinee. 
—The two genera Cheldne and 
Pentst?mon are so often confused 
together, that it may be useful here 
to copy the very clear distinctions 
which Dr. Lindiey has laid down 
between them, for the sake of such 
of my readers as may be botanists. 
“ Chelone has a ringent corolla, seat- 
ed among round imbricated bractee ; 
its anthers are fastened together by 
a dense mass of wool, and its seeds 
have amembranous margin. Pent- 
stemon, on the contrary, has a bila- 
biate corolla, with only a single 
bractea, which is at a considerable 
distance from it; its anthers are 
distinct from each other, and either 
ivericeity smooth, or at most only 
slightly pubescent ; and its seeds are 
destitute of a membranous margin. 
The habit of the two genera is also 
strikingly different.” To those who 
27 
wg 
are not botanists it may be sufficient 
to remark, that the flowers of the 
Chelone are short and inflated, and 
crowded together; while those of 
the Pentstemon are long and funnel- 
shaped, and far apart. The Pent- 
stemons are generally hardy or half- 
hardy plants, suffering less from 
cold than from damp during winter ; 
and as they all are very apt todamp 
off at that season, it is a good plan 
to take enttings of all the kinds 
grown in the open ground in autumn, 
and to strike them in sandy peat, 
keeping them in a greenhouse or 
some dry place till spring, whe they 
may be planted in the flower-border. 
All the Pentstemons are beautiful 
North American perennials, grow- 
ing from one foot to two feet in 
height, with white, pink, blue, or 
purple flowers, produced from March 
to October. Most of them will grow 
in common garden soil, and the rest 
in loam and peat; and they are all 
readily propagated by division of 
the roots, or by seeds or cuttings. 
P. campanuladius grows a foot and 
a half high, and produces its light 
purple flowers from March to Octo- 
ber, and P. rdseus produces its red 
flowers during the same period ; P. 
pulchéllus grows a foot and a half 
high, and produces light purple 
flowers in June and July. P. spe- 
cidsus grows two feet high, and pro- 
duces its beautiful blue flowers in 
August and September. P. Mur- 
rayanus (the handsomest of the 
genus) grows about two feet high, 
and produces its brilliant scarlet 
flowers in August, but is rather ten- 
der. P. Cobe\a grows about a foot 
and a half or two feet high, and 
produces its large light purple or 
pinkish flowers in August, and is 
also rather tender. P. WScoulcri, 
which grows three feet to four feet 
high, and produces its purple flow- 
ers from May to July, is saffrutes- 
cent, and succeeds either in the open 
border, or forms a beautiful object 
