265 
PENTSTEMON MURRAYANUS. 
(mr. Murray's scarlet pentstemon.) ' 
class. order. 
DIDYNAMIA. ANGIOSPERMIA. 
NATURAL ORDER. 
SCROPHULARINE^. 
Generic Character. — Ca/y<r five -parted. Coro//a two-lipped, inflated. Filaments fi-vey one of which, 
the fifth, is longer than the rest, and hearded at its upper end. Capsule two-valved and two-seeded. 
Seeds very numerous, of a suh-globose shape. 
Specific Character Plant perennial, growing from four to five feet high. Stem round, erect. 
Leaves quite glaucous, entire, opposite. Root leaves oblong, from seven to eight inches in length, 
amplexicaul. Stem leaves perfoliate and cup-shaped. Flowers arising from the axils of the stem 
leaves, and forming a kind of paniculated raceme, each pair of leaves producing two, four, and even 
six, slightly drooping flowers, each flower terminating a lengthened peduncle. Calyx of five, nearly 
equal, somewhat spreading, oblong segments. Corolla nearly two inches long, enlarging upwards, 
of a splendid, bright, scarlet colour. Limb two-parted, upper part small and divided ; lower, large, 
striking into three oval lobes. The fifth and imperfect filament, red and curved at the end. Germen 
egg-shaped, of a green colour. Style red, filiform. Stigma ohtnse.— Botanical Magazine, t. 3472. 
Seeds of this very beautiful herbaceous perennial were sent to the Glasgow 
Botanic Garden in the spring of 1835, by the late Mr. Drummond, who found it 
at San Felipe in Texas ; a more splendid addition to our hardy plants has not 
been introduced for a long period, and what makes it doubly valuable, is its 
flowering at the latter part of summer and autumn. The late lamented Mr. 
Douglas sent home some new species of this genus from the north-west coast of 
North America. Pentstemon speciosa is nearest in beauty to the present species, 
but is a difficult plant to keep and cultivate ; from what we know of the present 
species, it requires no extra care in its cultivation, flourishing in sandy peat, in the 
open border, where it attains the height of from four to five feet, and produces 
great abundance of its rich, glossy, scarlet blossoms ; on a dried native specimen 
Sir W. Jackson Hooker counted fifty-six flowers on one raceme : in a state of high 
cultivation, there is no doubt it will be much finer. 
VOL. Ill NO. XXXVI. M M 
