24 TBOP-EOLUM SrECIOSUM. 



There are several other very showy blue Penstemons, not to mention those of a 

 purple tint, such as the now common P. gentianoides, which may frequently be met 

 with seven or eight feet high. 



The P. a%ureum is an interesting species of a compact habit, and dark blue 

 flowers ; P. ovatum has blossoms of a blueish tint, though there are varieties sold 

 for ovatum, and which agree with it in habit and foliage, but which have not blue 

 flowers. P. Dichonii, called also Chelone Dicksonii, is a fine plant, at present very 

 rare, as is also a species raised by Mr. Leeds of Manchester, and named by him 

 P. Gordonii, in compliment to Mr. Gordon, who collected it in the valley of the Platte 

 Eiver, on the eastern side of the Kocky Mountains. 



With the new P. cyananthus, said to be the finest of the blue species, we close 

 the list. 



The genus Penstemon, or as it is sometimes written Pentstemon, is thus named from 

 <pente, five, and stemon a stamen, in allusion to the fifth stamen peculiar to these 

 plants. Nearly all the Scrophulariacece, or figworts, have the stamens in two pairs, 

 or didynamous, as it is termed, and in this respect the Penstemons agree with the 

 other genera of the order. But they possess also a fifth sterile filament, which is 

 usually longer than the other four, and bearded at its upper end, by which they 

 are distinguished from all the other plants of the order, except those included in the 

 genus Chelone, which, by some botanists, is regarded only as a section of the 

 present genus. 



TROPJEOLUM SPECIOSUM, 



Showy Indian- Cress. 

 Linnean Clms — Octandria. Order — Monogynia. Natural Order — Troi>.t:olaceje. 



Tue genus Tropaolum bids fair to become in time one of considerable extent, as 

 not a year now elapses in which several additions are not made to it. The 

 curious structure of their showy flowers, and the freeness with which they are 

 produced by most of the species, has rendered them general favourites; and from 

 their extensive range throughout South America, being found from Venezuela to 

 the most southern part of Chili, generally at a considerable distance above the level 

 of the sea, species may be selected, suited to every class of cultivators, from the 

 possessors of a greenhouse or conservatory to those whose floral domain is limited 



