314 breck's new book of flowers. 



cies are hardy and stand onr winters with a Uttle protec- 

 tion, while others are half-hardy and require the protection 

 of frames. 



PentSt^mon Murrayanus. — Murray's Pentstemon. — A 

 perennial plant, a native of Texas, about three feet high, 

 producing spikes of numerous flowers, of a rich shining 

 scarlet color ; each flower is an inch and one-half long, 

 or upwards. It is a most splendid flowering plant. A 

 single spike has been known to produce uj^wards of fifty 

 blossoms. This is an English description ; here it is half- 

 hardy. 



P. Cobseat — Cobsea-flowered Pentstemon. — This is a 

 very showy perennial species, producing panicled spikes 

 of numerous pale-blue flowers, which have a most showy 

 appearance. The flower-stems rise about two feet high ; 

 half-hardy. 



P. Richardsoni. — Richardson's Pentstemon. — A hardy 

 perennial from Oregon, which grows to tlie height of 

 eighteen inches ; flowers in July and August, of a pink- 

 ish-purple color. It does not admit of division of the 

 root, and should be increased by cuttings, which readily 

 strike root about mid-summer. Most of the species must 

 be treated in the same way, or raised from seeds. 



P. specioSUS. — Showy Pentstemon. — This beautiful spe- 

 cies is a native of the north-west coast of America, A 

 hardy perennial, but requiring a protection of leaves, and 

 can be propagated by the division of the roots. The flow- 

 ers are disposed in a long, terminal, loose, racemose pan- 

 icle, with the branches in distant ])airs, and bearing from 

 seven to eleven blossoms of a beautiful pale-blue color. 



P. pub^SCCnS. — Downy Pentstemon. — Produces its pur- 

 plish-blue flowers about June; the pubescent (downy) 

 leaves are lanceolate, oblong, sessile, and serrulate ; the 

 flowers, with the sterile filament bearded above the middle, 



