Crass XV.—MONADELPHIA. 
= 
IL—PENTANDRIA. 
468. LOBELIA. ZL. 
Calix 5-cleft. Corolla monopetalous, irregu- 
lar, on the upper side cleft nearly to its base. 
Stamina united into a tube. Stigma 2-lobed; 
_ Involucrate! involucrum (or indusium) bearded. 
Capsule inferior or semisuperior, 2 or 3-celled, 
opening at the summit. Seeds minute, scabrous. 
Suffruticose, shrubby, rarely arborescent, most com- 
monly herbaceous; leaves alternate, flowers minutely bi- 
bracteolate, solitary and axillary, or terminal and racc- 
mose, raceme bracteate; flowers bilabiate, 5-cleft, upper 
lip cloven, segments linear, lower trifid, laciniz ovate or 
obovate, palate channelled or bidentate, often bimaculate. 
Tube of the anthers curved at the summit, bearded and 
perforate, at length admitting the egress of the stigma. 
Colour of the flowers, scarlet, fulvous, or more common- 
ly blue. 
Species. 1. L. Dortmanna. Leaves linear, fistulous, 
and bilocular, scape simple. 2. * paludosa. Leaves radi- 
cal ted, flat, linear-oblong, obtuse, carnose and 
obsoletely crenulate; scape nearly simple and 
rs few and very remote; disk of the lower hip 
ed. Has. In deep sphagnose swamps, from 
ty in Delaware to Georgia. A very sil 
sp ently allied to Z. Dortmanna, and like it sub- 
aquati perfectly distinct. Oss. Root pro- 
ducing large clusters of thick fleshy leaves 4 te 6 inches 
long and scarcely 5 lines wide, from the centre of these 
arise several fistulous, angular scapes, about 2 feet in 
length, mostly simple, though sometimes sending out a 
single branch subtended by ft or 2 leaves. Flowers pale 
blue and small, subtended by minute bractes, often near 2 
inches aperiacebs smooth. ‘The pubescence cabsct = ten 
in this lowing species is a peculiarity not 
met with in any of the other North American Lobelias, 
= Mec oe 
