302 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ April 17, 1884 
it. is preferred to Seakale or Asparagus. It seems more delicate in flavour 
than the white variety, and hoils beautifully green. A medical gentlenun 
tells me it contains a larger per-centage of potash salts, so necessary 
during the spring months, than any other member of the Brassica family. 
It is a mistake to have it fit for use before the present time. No other 
Broccoli is hardier than this.—W. J. M., Clonmel. 
PENTSTEMONS. 
There is now a large number of florists’ varieties of this beautiful 
genus, but I do not intend making any remarks upon them in this 
notice, but will confine myself to the other forms, which for con¬ 
venience we may call species, that constitute a very important series 
in the Californian Flora. There is much for everybody to admire in 
them, but especially are they to be appreciated by those enthusiastic 
in the cultivation of herbaceous and alpine plants. Some of them it 
is true are not quite hardy, and consequently it is necessary to keep a 
certain number under protection during the winter. This may be 
done by striking cuttings during the summer, or by saving seed, which 
most of them produce freely ; but if planted in a well-drained 
sheltered position only a few of them will succumb, hence if these 
species are to be kept it will be necessary to adopt the precaution 
alluded to. Most of them prefer a light well-drained soil and a 
sunny position in different parts of the rockery or in small borders. 
The habit of some is especially suited to the rockery, such as 
P. procerus and P. humilis. These are both dwarf-growing and 
very profusely flowering that they should be in all collections of 
alpines forming decumbent shoots, which root freely from the under 
side, and ultimately produce spreading cushions of evergreen growth 
covered during the season with their pretty racemes of flowers. The 
more tender kinds should be planted at the foot of a sunny wall, 
where they would be protected during the winter ; in fact this plan 
usually affords sufficient protection to keep them alive. I have now 
good plants of P. cordifolius and P. breviflorus which have occupied 
the same position three years, and last season they came up very 
strong, although cut down by the previous winter, and other plants in 
the open border were quite killed. P Jaffrayanus, a most lovely 
species, is perhaps the most tender of all, and it is needful to sow a 
pinch of seeds yearly or strike cuttings. 
No hardy-plant grower has been more energetic than Mr. W. 
Thompson of Ipswich in the introduction of these charming plants ; 
each season for some years past he has distributed one or two fresh 
sorts, all of which are well worth growing. I have raised and grown 
nearly, if not quite, all the Pentstemons which have appeared by name 
in the various catalogues and collections, and in some cases there have 
been duplicate names, which of course have been discarded, while 
other names have been authenticated, and numerous notes have been 
made upon them during several years. I have often noticed in raising 
a batch of seedlings that, like all other plants, there is more or less 
of variation, not so much in the foliage as the colour and size of the 
flowers, details which botanists should not take seriously into 
consideration, but which indeed may have been the bases upon which 
some of the names may have been founded. Seeds of nearly all the 
species are easily raised in well-drained pots of sandy soil placed in a 
cold frame or cool house, and if the pots are covered with slips of 
glass the necessity for watering will be reduced to a minimum, 
but never allow them to become dry. The seeds of some are very 
slow to germinate—for example, those of P. antirrhinoides, which I 
have known to remain for five or six months, and rarely more than a 
few seeds germinate ; this may be due to the great length of time 
which elapses between the gathering and sowing the seed. Other 
species which I do not now remember have behaved in the same way. 
Cuttings may also be rooted in pots placed in a cold frame, roots 
forming in a few weeks, especially if a heel is left to each. I will 
now give brief descriptions of the species with which I am 
acquainted, although I am not certain as to the authorities for some 
of the names ; nevertheless they are all distinct and well worth 
growing. 
P. acuminatus, Dougl.—A pretty species, known also under the 
name of P. nitidus of the same author, but well figured under the 
name here adopted in Lindley’s “ Botanical Register,” 1.1285, and is a 
native of N. America, being widely distributed throughout the States. 
It grows from 12 to 18 inches high, with ovate-lanceolate, acuminate 
leaves, with numerous flowers disposed in a virgate panicle, the 
corollas being l£to 2 inches long, rich purple, with very open throat 
and large spreading lobes, appearing from July to September. The 
seed vessels are conspicuously acuminate, upon which character the 
specific name is based. 
± . vHrrhinioides, Benth.—A less common species than may be 
supposed by the name, but is synonymous with P. Lobbii of our 
gardens. Itwasfigured under the latter name in the “ Ulus. Hort.," 1862, 
t. 315, and under the name here adopted in the “ Bot. Mag.,” t. 6157, 
and near what is described by Bindley in the “ Bot. Reg.," t. 1916, 
under the name of breviflorus. Certainly there is a slight difference 
in colour, but both are yellow, this plant usually producing clear 
yellow’ flowers. Other small deviations may be noted, but I think if a 
good series of specimens of both were examined they would prove to 
be identical. It is a copiously branched plant, very leafy, growing 
from 1 to 4 feet high, with small oblong or oval entire leaves about 
half an inch long. Flowers solitary, terminating small leafy shoots, 
with a very broad lemon-coloured corolla about two-thirds of an inch 
long, with wide gaping lips, a most curiously formed flower. One 
distinction which is said to be important in the true P. breviflorus is 
that it produces from two to several flowers in racemose panicles, 
which, however, I have never seen, and it may be after all very 
doubtful if the right plant is now under cultivation at all. Native 
of Southern California, flowering in August and September.. 
P. asurcus, Benth.—A beautiful species, widely distributed 
throughout California, flowering wflth us from Julj’ to September. It 
grows from 14 to 2^ feet high, smooth and slightly glaucous through¬ 
out, with lanceolate entire leaves and many-flowered racemose 
panicles ; corolla about 1^- inch long, much dilated above, sky blue 
or blue violet, frequently with a reddish tube. This handsome 
species is rather tender, and consequently should be planted in a w.rm 
position. I have had at least two different plants under this name— 
one, a veiy slender-growing and dwarf plant, proved to be P. deustus, 
quite distinct in every way. 
P. cyananthus, Hook.—A most beautiful blue-flowering perennial, 
bearing a spike more than a foot long. It is an inhabitant of the 
upper valleys of the Plate River, in the Rocky Mountains, where 
seeds were collected by Mr. Burke. From these seeds plants were 
reared by Messrs. Lucombe, Pince, & Co., in whose nursery at Exeter 
the plants flowered in the open air in May, 1849. The species is 
quite hardy, and a great acquisition to our flower borders. It is 
desirable to have a succession of young plants always on hand, which 
may be raised by cuttings early in the summer, and which should be 
sheltered in a frame during the winter, but with as much exposure as 
the weather will allow. 
P. barbatus, Gray.—This old-fashioned and very showy species is 
very frequently called Chelone barbata, and is highly appreciated ; 
it was figured under this name in the “ Bot. Reg t. 116, where it is 
stated that it was introduced from Mexico in 1794 by Sir Joseph 
Banks. It has a sub-woody rootstock with lar.ceolate-spathulate 
leaves, and tall panicles carrying numerous flowers ; corolla from 
1 to 2 inches long, rich orange scarlet, wi.h a rather narrow tube, and 
spreading lips. It flowers from June to September, and thrives well 
either in the border or on the rockery. The effect of its straggling 
panicles is very pretty upon the rockery. There are slight variations 
in the plant both in the leaves and colour of the flowers, and these 
