PENTSTEMON OVATUM, 
(Ovate-leaved Pentstemon.) 
Class. 
DIDYNAMIA. 
Order. 
ANGIOSPBRMIA, 
Natural Order. 
SCROPHULARIACE^:. 
Generic Character.— Calyx five-parted, with a 
distant, solitary bractea. Corolla ventricose, bilabiate. 
Stamens didynamous, with the rudiment of the fifth, 
which is usually filiform, and bearded on the upper 
side ; anthers separate, usually glabrous. Capsule 
ovate, two-celled, two-valved, many-seeded. Seeds 
angular. 
Specific Character. — Flowers, stems, and pedun- 
cles clothed with glandular hairs. Leaves ovate-cordate, 
stem-clasping, glabrous, coarsely- toothed ; lower ones 
on long petioles. Peduncles axillary, subcorymbose ; 
upper ones short, and appearing as if they were verti- 
cillate. Corolla tubular. Sterile filament bearded at 
top, and unidentate at the base. — Don's Gardening and 
Botany. 
What are generally understood as hardy herbaceous plants have been rendered 
quite unfashionable, and comparatively useless, since the now prevailing method of 
flower-gardening — filling the beds of the parterre with plants almost always of one 
kind, and invariably with those bearing flowers of one colour — was introduced. 
Distinguished as is the modern system, by its advantages and superiority, from the 
ancient order of things, still it is not fair that it should have chased hardy herba- 
ceous plants wholly from our gardens. As a whole, they do not deserve putting 
entirely on equality with those which have superseded them ; but there are many 
which merit equal attention, and which, were they favourably treated and grown in 
a proper situation, would afford an unlimited degree of satisfaction. 
The above remarks apply to hardy herbaceous plants in general, and are not 
required to introduce a member of a genus whose ornamental character is familiar to 
every one ; nor would they have been employed on the present occasion, were not our 
plant strictly an herbaceous species, and its flowers smaller than those of Pentstemons 
usually are ; but any defect arising from the latter circumstance is fully atoned for 
by the great number of blossoms, and the large size of the panicle by which they are 
borne ; (a part of it, the upper portion only, is shown in the plate ;) this latter 
feature, however, as well as the proportion of the whole plant, is materially influenced 
by the usage it meets with : a rich soil, unrestricted root-room, &c, in the growing 
