Chaenostoma
(from chaino, to gape, and stoma, a mouth; in reference to the wide throat of the corolla). ORD. Scrophularineae. Very pretty greenhouse herbs or under-shrubs. Flowers axillary or racemose, on longish pedicels. Leaves nearly all opposite, toothed, rarely quite entire. They are of easy culture in ordinary garden soil. Seeds should be sown thinly in a hotbed, in March; and when the seedings are large enough to handle, they should be pricked out thinly, and transferred to the flower garden, in May, where they will prove very ornamental throughout the summer. Cuttings may be made in autumn, and placed in a greenhouse or cold pit during the winter. C. cordata (heart-shaped). fl. white, axillary, pedicellate; late. June. l. petiolate, ovate-roundish, toothed. Branches herbaceous, prostrate, somewhat radicant, hairy. h. 1 1/2ft. South Africa, 1816.
C. hispida (hairy). fl. white, axillary, pedicellate; superior ones loosely racemose. June to August. l. ovate or oblong, coarsely toothed. Branches shrubby, procum bent or divaricate, hairy. h. 1ft. Cape of Good Hope, 1816. (R. G. 448.) C. linifolia (Flax-leaved).* fl. white, yellow, racemose. November. l. oblong-lanceolate or linear, quite entire. h. 1ft. Cape of Good Hope, 1820. Shrubby. (P. F. G. iii., p.7.) C. polyantha (many-flowered).* fl. lilac, yellow; corolla funnel. shaped; racemes loose. June. l. ovate, toothed, cuneated at the base; upper ones oblong. Herbaceous, much branched at the base. h. 4in. South Africa, 1844. (B. R. 33, 32.)