522 Edwards's Botcmical Register. 



plants, Droufflit does not suit it ; it docs not thrive in wet ; heat has no 

 beneficial effect ; cold no prejudicial influence ; care does not improve it ; 

 neglect does not injure it. Of all the numerous seedlings that were raised 

 by the Horticultural Society from Sir H. Willock's seeds, and distributed, 

 scarcely a plant remains alive. Two are still growing in a peat border in 

 the Chiswick garden, but they are languishmg and unhealthy j and we con- 

 fess that observation of them in a living state, for nearly four years, has not 

 suggested a single method of improving the cultivation of the species. As 

 to its genus, it is well known that, since the days of Linnoeus, the charac- 

 ters of the genera of flowering plants have been exclusively taken from the 

 organs of fructification, while those of vegetation have been rigorously 

 excluded. This has arisen from the former having been supposed, in all 

 cases, more constant in their modifications, and less subject to variation than 

 the latter. No other reason can be assigned for the value thus exclusively 

 ascribed to the organs of fructification. It is, however, time that botanists 

 should disembarrass themselves of this ancient prejudice, and admit pub- 

 licly that by which they are constantly influenced in private — that impo7-l- 

 ant modljicalions of the organs of vegetation are suJIicient to divide into genera 

 species which do not essentuiUy differ in the organs of fritctijicalion. Oi this 

 the Indian cypripediums are one instance, the genus JN^cg^iW^w??* is a second, 

 and the subject of this article is a third. The structure of its flower is in 

 every respect that of a rose ; but its foliage is not even that of a rosaceous 

 plant, there being no trace of stipulas. The simple leaves are not analogous 

 to the terminal pinna of a rose leaf, for there is no trace of the articulation 

 upon their petiole, which is required to indicate a reduction of a compound 

 leaf, as we find in Berberis ; neither can they be considered confluent stipu- 

 lae, for their vernation is not what would be found under such circumstances, 

 but precisely that of an ordinary leaf. 



iV^o. VII. for September, contains. 

 1262 to 1268. — Pentstemon glandulosum. A handsome and strongly 

 marked perennial species, with purj^lish-red flowers, from the rocky channels 

 of mountain torrents, in latitude 47^ North America. Introduced to the 

 Horticultural Society by Mr. Douglas, in 1827. " Of the various disco- 

 veries that have resulted from the journey of Mr. Douglas to the north- 

 west coast of America, the new species of iupinus and Pentstemon will 

 probably be found the most interesting to the cultivator, in consequence of 

 the great beauty and variety of their forms, and their hardy habits. Natives 

 of a country, the mean temperature of which is supposed to be very like 

 that of Great Britain, they seem as well adapted to our climate as to their 

 own, and flourish as gaily on the fertile margin of the Thames as on the 

 rude banks of the Colombia and the Multnoma. The following list of the 

 pentstemons that have been found by Mr. Douglas, and which are now grow- 

 ing in the garden of the Horticultural Society, will show the extent to 

 which our gardens have been enriched with them : — 



p. glandulosum. P. Scoulm. P. vemistum. 

 triphyllum. ovatum. pruinosum. 



confertum. speciosum. deustum. 



Richardson?. acuminJitum. attenuatum. 



RUjcs cercum. A small hardy shrub, from dry rocks in the north-west 

 of North America, by Mr. Douglas — Argemone grandiflora. An annual 

 from Mexico, with white flowers from June to September. " One of the 

 nuiltitude of fine plants with which our gardens have been enriched by the 

 importations of Robert Barclay, Esq., of Bury Hill. It is one of the most 

 ornamental hanly annuals we are acquainted with, and far superior to any 

 other of the poppy tribe, except Eschscholtzia californica." — Helianthus 

 lenticularis. A handsome annual sunflower, attaining the height of e ft., 



