LOBELIACE^ LOBELIA FAMILY 



Lobelia cardinalis, L. 



Red, rarely rose-colour or white Red Lobelia, 



Cardinal Flower, 



August-September Red Bettij, 



Slink-weed, 

 Hog's-physic. 



Lobelia: Dedicated to Matthias de FObel, an early Flemish 



herbalist. 

 Cardinalis: a Latin form used to refer to colour, from the 



red of a cardinal's vestments. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: wet ground. 



THE PLANT: erect, two feet to four and a half feet high; 

 the stem slightly tinged with red, hairless or having a few 

 short hairs. 



THE LEAVES: alternate; oval, tending to lanceolate; dark 

 green or tinged with red; smooth or nearly so; acute at 

 both ends; the upper sessile, the lower on stems; slightly 

 toothed. 



THE FLOWERS: in a racemose spike; the corolla with a 

 straight tube, which is split apparently on the upper side, 

 somewhat two-lipped; the upper lobed, the lower cleft. 



THE FRUIT: a pod. 



A very beautiful and, unfortunately, a very rare flower 

 on Nantucket. But it is one of the flowers that, once seen, 

 is never forgotten, for the beautiful, cardinal-red of the 

 graceful blossoms, nodding amid the high green grass, is a 



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