PENTAPTERTGIUM. 



228 



PENT3TEM0N. 



lian Bhrubs, with fine liair-like roots 

 in pots. When greenhouse shrubs 

 are directed to be gi-own in peat,^ it 

 is alwaj^s understood to mean a mix- 

 ture of peat and silver sand, and 

 not black peat alone. 



Pegs, — Pieces of forked stick (see 

 fig. 39) used for keeping down plants 

 that are wanted to cover a bed in a 

 regular flower-garden, and forusther 



FIG. 39.— HOOKED STICK FOR PEGGING 

 DOWN PLANTS IN FLOWER GARDENS: 

 ONE END OF WHICH SHOULD ALAVAYS 

 BE MUCH LONGER THAN THE OTHER. 



similar purposes. When hooked 

 sticks are not easily to be procured, 

 bent wire or tin pegs are sometimes 

 used, or even hair-pins. Some per- 

 sons recommend the pins of whale- 

 bone. 



Pelargo^nium. — See Gera^nium. 



Pellitory, Common. — Pyre- 

 thrum Partlienium. 



Pellitory op Spain. — A'nthe- 

 mis Pyrethrum. — See A'nthemis. 



Pelo^ria. — A curious variety of 

 the common Toad-flax. — See Li- 



NA^RIA, 



Pentaptery'gium." Vacciniacece. 

 This beautiful little shrub was found 

 among the hills of North Eastern 

 India. The flowers are formed like 

 those of many kinds of Heath and 



Vaccinium but they are of a golden 

 yellow, a veiy unusual colour in 

 this order, with the pedicels and 

 margins of the calyx red. It flow- 

 ered in England in 1856. 



Pentste'mon. — ScropJmldrince. 

 — The two genera Chelone and 

 Pentstemon are often confused to- 

 gether, but they are quite distinct, 

 and when seen together may be 

 easily distinguished from each other, 

 as the flowers of Chelone are short 

 and inflated, and crowded together ; 

 while those of Pentstemon are long 

 and funnel-shaped, and far apart. 

 The Pentstemons are generally hardy 

 or half-hardy plants, suffering less 

 from cold than from damp during 

 winter ; and as they all are very 

 apt to damp off at that season, it is 

 a good plan to take cuttings of all 

 the kinds grown in the open ground 

 in autumn, and to strike them in a 

 sandy peat, keeping them in a green- 

 house or some dry place till spring, 

 when they may be planted in the 

 flower-border. All the Pentstemons 

 are beautiful North American peren- 

 nials, growing from one foot to two 

 feet in height, with white, pink, 

 blue, or purple flowers, produced 

 fi-om 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. campanulatios grove's 

 a foot and a half high, and produces 

 its light purple flowers from March 

 to October, and P. roseus produces 

 its red flowers during the same 

 period ; P. jiulchelhts grows a foot 

 and a half high, and produces light 

 purple flowers in June and July ; P. 

 speciosus grows two feet high, and 

 produces its beautiful blue flowers 

 in August and September. P. Mur- 

 raydmis (the handsomest of the 

 genus) grows about two feet high, 

 and produces its brilliant scarlet 



