The sweet briar is often found growing in waste places, and in thickets near clearings—no doubt the seed has been carried thither by birds.
It is very possible that other varieties of the rose tribe may yet be found native to Canadian soil, but the above named are our only known species at present.
Nat. Ord. Scrophulariaceæ.
PENTSTEMON BEARD-TONGUE.
Pentstemon pubescens.
“Flowers spring up and die ungathered.”
HE wild Pentstemon is a slender, elegant branching plant, not unlike in outline to the fox-glove. The flowers are delicately shaded from white to pale azure-blue, sometimes varying to deeper blue. The corolla is an inflated slender tube, somewhat flattened on the upper side, with a rigid line passing from the base of the tube to the upper lip. There are also two bearded lines within. The lower lip is three-cleft and slightly projecting beyond the two-lobed upper lip; the stamens are five, but one is sterile and thickly beset with fine white hairs (or bearded). The name is derived from a Greek word signifying five. The root leaves are broadly lanceolate and coarsely toothed; the upper or stem-leaves narrower, and nearly clasping the stem. The flowers grow on long branching stalks in a loose panicle.
The plant is perennial, from one to two feet in height; it seems addicted to dry gravelly soil on river banks and dry pastures. The Beard-tongue would be well worthy of cultivation; though less showy than the garden varieties, it is not less beautiful and keeps in bloom a long time, from July to September; it might be mixed with the red flowering plants of the garden to great advantage.