22 PENSTEMON SPECIOSTTM. 



families into which botanists, for convenience sake, have divided the vegetable king- 

 dom, there are few of them which are not by some of their genera connected with 

 other orders, so that, however dissimilar many of these families may at first sight 

 appear, they all, in reality, merge into each other by almost imperceptible grada- 

 tions, and form parts of one harmonious whole. 



Illustrations of this truth may be readily found in the natural order, the lily- 

 tribe, to which the genus Calochortus belongs. In this order, the outer whorl of 

 floral leaves, or sepals as they are termed, are of the same colour and substance as 

 the inner whorl, or petals, being, in other words, petaloid ; and, in fact, they 

 resemble each other so closely, that in certain genera it is difficult to distinguish 

 them. 



But in the genus under consideration, there is a departure from the type of the 

 order, the three sepals being green and leafy, and altogether different in their 

 appearance to the three petals, approaching in this particular the Spider-wort 

 tribe, Commelinacem, although in other respects it agrees with the characteristics 

 of the order in which it is placed. 



Most, if not all, of the species we possess were sent to the London Horticultural 

 Society from California by poor Douglass, whose untimely end botanists of every 

 land will not soon cease to deplore. 



PENSTEMON SPECIOSUM. 



Showy Penstemon. 

 Linnean Class — Didynamia. Order — Axgiosperma. Natural Order — Scsophulariale 1 . 



Wkke we so unfortunate as to be compelled to limit our collection of plants to two 

 genera, we think we should, without hesitation, select for one of these the 

 Penstemons, and for the other, the Salvias. 



The genus Penstemon, although it scarcely includes so many species, and plants 

 of such varied tints, as are comprised in the sage family, can nevertheless boast of a 

 considerable and increasing number, nearly all of which are plants of a highly orna- 

 mental character. 



The most prevalent colour of the genus is red or scarlet ; there are, however, 

 a few species with blue flowers, of which the plant now figured may be regarded 

 as the oldest, if not the best. 



Th^ P. speciosum grows about two feet high, and produces its beautiful deep blur 



