PENTSTEMONS AND PHLOXES. 



189 



I shall confine myself strictly to garden varieties — those which 

 have been produced by the skill of the gardener. 



The Pentstemon. — Garden varieties are very numerous, and 

 have probably been produced by cross-fertilisation between the 

 two species, P. Hartivegi (or P. gentianoides) and P. Cobcea. 



P. Hartivegi is figured in the Botanical Begistcr of 1838 

 from a plant flowered by Mr. Groom, of Walworth, in September 

 of the previous year. It is stated that the plant had come 

 from Belgium, after having been discovered in the first place in 

 Mexico by Humboldt and Bonpland, in cold situations on the 

 slopes of the snow-capped mountain of Toluco, at the height of 

 10,500 feet -above the sea. The Botanical Begister specimen is 

 poor compared with that figured a year later in the Botanical 

 Magazine. The latter is of a bright red colour, and the flowers 

 well-formed. Probably many of the garden varieties have been 

 produced from this plant, being gradually improved by selec- 

 tion. 



P. Cobcea lias been grown in English gardens for upwards 

 of sixty years. It is also a Mexican plant, and was sent from 

 that country in 1834 by Mr. Drummond, who also introduced 

 with it another highly ornamental species, P. Murray anus. 



There are about sixty-six distinct species of Pentstemon, most 

 of them in cultivation in gardens. Of these some are quite 

 hardy, while others, including the garden varieties, often die 

 off in the winter, owing to the fickleness of our climate, the 

 alternations of wet and frost destroying the vitality of the 

 plants. 



The garden Pentstemon produces roots very freely, and 

 requires good deep soil to grow in, and an ample supply of rich 

 manure to sustain its vigour. The details of culture may be 

 given in very few words, and to make the matter as simple as 

 possible I will begin with the seed and the cutting. But before 

 the seed can be sown it must be obtained either by purchase or 

 by careful fertilisation in the garden. Seeds are produced in 

 abundance — so freely indeed, that unless the seed-pods are re- 

 moved they quickly exhaust the plants, and the production of 

 flowers ceases. In order to obtain new varieties cross-fertilisa- 

 tion must be effected by transferring the pollen from one flower 

 to another. This is done constantly by bees, moths, and butter- 

 flies, but the insects, of course, flit from flower to flower, and do 



