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PENTSTEMON MACKAYANUS. 



white or cream-coloured mouth, compressed longitudinally above, with three plaits or folds 

 beneath, upper lip short, with two erecto-reflexed lobes, the lower lip somewhat elongated, 

 villous within, divided into three rounded lobes, of which the middle one is the smallest ; beard 

 of the sterile filament of a pale yellow. 



An exceedingly pretty and delicate species, in the collection of the Birming- 

 ham Botanical and Horticultural Society, to which establishment it was sent last 

 year, with other rarities, from the garden of Trinity College, Dublin, by its 

 indefatigable curator Mr. J. T. Mackay, who informs us that he raised it from 

 seeds received by him from Mr. Murray of the Botanic Garden, Glasgow. It is 

 a native of Ohio, one of the United States of America, where it was found by 

 the late Mr. Drummond, when on his journey to Mexico in 1834. Mr. Cameron 

 is fortunate in having preserved it, as the plant in the Dublin garden, and the 

 few rooted cuttings that were raised from it, all perished last winter. 



It comes near to P. pubescens, but is altogether a smaller and more delicate 

 plant ; the pubescence, too, is not simply downy, but glandular ; while the den- 

 ticulate margin of the leaves is also, when carefully examined, distinctly glan- 

 dular. It must necessarily be equally distinct from P. hirsutum. It approaches 

 very closely to P. Icevigatum, but at the same time may be readily distinguished 

 from that species. 



It appears to thrive in any common garden soil, and may be increased readily 

 by dividing, either in September or April. It appears to be more decidedly 

 herbaceous than many of the other species. 



The genus Pentstemon belongs to the natural order Scrophulariacece, and is 

 arranged by Bentham in the section Digitalecc (the Foxglove section), with which 

 it agrees in certain important characters. Pentstemon is closely allied to Chelone, 

 from which it has been distinguished by its angular seeds ; those of Chelone being 

 surrounded by a membranous margin. The generic name Pentstemon is derived 

 from ttcvt€, five, and o-ttj^mv, a stamen, in allusion to the additional or fifth sterile 

 stamen, the usual number in Scrophulariacece being Jour, which are didynamous, 

 or two long and two short. The specific name we have selected in compliment 

 to our esteemed correspondent Mr. J. F. Mackay, whose zeal in the pursuit of 

 botanical science is too well known to every botanist in Europe to require from 

 us any lengthened eulogium. 



Fig. 1, corolla laid open ; 2, germ, style, and stigma. 



