ally with apparently free segments; corolla and stamens inserted around the 

 periphery of the calyx tube at the summit of the rim; stamens as many as the 

 corolla lobes and alternate with them, epipetalous; seeds mostly small and numer- 

 ous, with fleshy endosperm. 



About 2,000 species in 65 genera of world-wide distribution. 



1. Flowers minute, sessile in dense leafless terminal spikes less than 1 cm. in 

 diameter; corolla white, about 2.5 mm. long; stamens inserted 

 about the middle of the corolla tube, distinct; capsule circum- 

 scissile 1. Sphenodea 



1. Flowers rather large, pedicellate or (if sessile or essentially so) in spikes with 



foliaceous bracts; corolla typically more than 5 mm. long, red or of 

 various shades of blue and purple to dull-white (or clear-white in 

 albino forms); stamens inserted at the base of the corolla and free 

 from it, distinct or united; capsule loculicidally dehiscent (2) 



2(1). Flowers radially symmetrical; corolla regular, campanulate; anthers dis- 

 tinct; capsule opening on the sides by outwardly curled elastic valves 

 or by longitudinal slits 2. Campanula 



2. Flowers bilaterally symmetrical; corolla strongly irregular, two-lipped; anthers 



united into a tube; capsule opening by apical valves (3) 



3(2). Corolla tube slit down one side nearly to the base 3. Lobelia 



3. Corolla tube entire, not slit down one side 4. Porterella 



1. Sphenodea Gaertn. 



A monotypic genus of the Old World tropics; segregated by some authors as a 

 distinct family, Sphenocleaceae. 



1. Sphenodea zeylanica Gaertn. Chicken spike. Fig. 734. 



Coarse glabrous branched annual herb to 10 dm. high or more, with fistulose 

 stems; leaves entire, with a petiole to 2 cm. long, elliptic, somewhat pale on lower 

 surface, to 12 cm. long and 5 cm. wide; spikes erect, dense, cylindric, naked, 

 tapering at tip, to 8 cm. long and 9 mm. in diameter, on peduncles to 1 dm. long; 

 floral bracts spatulate, 2-3 mm. long, about 1 mm. wide; flowers small, sessile, 

 5-merous; calyx lobes imbricate in bud, triangular to suborbicular, erose at the 

 rounded scarious apex, to 2 mm. wide at base, deciduous with capsule; corolla 

 white, about 2.5 mm. long, the lobes triangular and obtuse, deciduous with 

 stamens after anthesis; stamens alternating with the corolla lobes, inserted below 

 middle of tube; anthers roundish, appearing peltate; ovary wholly inferior; capsule 

 bilocular, circumscissile; seeds ellipsoid, about 0.5 mm. long. 



In wet places of lowlands and flats, especially rice fields, in e. and s. Tex., 

 Aug.-Nov.; an Old World species that has been introd. in warm regions of the 

 W. Hemis. 



2. Campanula L. Bellflower 



Perennial or sometimes biennial or annual herbs of various habit; radical leaves 

 often larger and more obtusely pointed with longer petioles than the cauline ones; 

 calyx 5-fid, the sinuses often with reflexed appendages; corolla usually blue or 

 purplish-blue, varying to white in the same species, 5-lobed at apex or 5-parted 

 but usually not parted below the middle, typically campanulate but varying to 

 rotate; stamens 5, distinct; filaments expanded and membranaceous at base; 

 anthers linear; ovary 3- to 5-celled, opening by as many valves as there are cells, 

 the valves varying in position from very base to near apex of capsule. 



About 300 species widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere. 



1572 



