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PENSTÈMON speciosus.
Showy Penstemon.
Linnean Class and Order. D ID Y N A M IA A N G IO S P E R M IA .
N a tu ra l Order. C H E L O N E A i.
P E N S T E M O N . Suprà fol. 211.
P . speciosus, glaberrimus ; foliis integerrimis ; radicalibus spathulatis ; cau linis
superioribus sessilibus lineari-oblongis obtusis, corollæ fauce prominenti
nudâ, filamento ste rili elongato imberbi.
Penstemon speciosum. Dougl. Mss. Lin d i, in bot, reg. t. 1270.
Plant perennial, herbaceous, perfectly glabrous. Stem
upright, rather stiff, about 3 feet high, obsoletely four-sided,
of a pale glaucous green, but occasionally shaded with purple.
Leaves rather fleshy, coriaceous, obtuse, entire, 3 or 5
inches long, dark green and glossy above, paler beneath;
the lower ones spathulate or lanceolate, flat, attenuated at the
base, with linear, bluntly keeled petioles, of an inch or two
in length ; upper ones sessile, broadly linear, 5 or 6 inches
long, scarcely an inch wide, concave, and occasionally folded
above, furnished below with a prominent midrib, the edges
cartilaginous and somewhat waved. Flowers disposed in a
long, terminal, loose, racemose panicle, with the branches
in distant pairs, and bearing from 7 to 11 blossoms. Peduncles
angular, glabrous, an inch long. Calyx of 5, ovate, acuminate,
imbricate, glabrous segments, having the edges
white and rather membranous; the upper one broader, recurved.
Corolla perfectly glabrous and glossy, both within
and without, rather stiff, about 2 inches long, and of a brilliant
cobalt blue; tube nearly cylindrical, longer than the
calyx ; faux inflated, white below, convex above; lower lip
of 3 reflexed lobes, with the edges wavy and folded back,
the upper part within prominent and purple; upper lip of 2
broader, connivent, recurved lobes; lobes rounded, quite en-
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