striped in throat, the tube 11-15 mm. long, fenestrate, base of lower lip white 

 and with 2 tubercles; filament tube 12-15 mm. long; anther tube 4-5.5 mm. long, 

 bluish-gray; capsule 8-10 mm. long, partly exserted. 



In moist woods and swampy places, low places in prairies, sandy or gravelly 

 margins of ponds and streams, and wet meadows in n.e. Tex. and e. Okla., 

 late summer; from Me. to Minn., Man. and Colo., s. to Tex. 



Our plants are referred to the var. htdoviciana A. DC. They are characterized 

 by being glabrous or nearly so, the leaves are mostly 15 mm. wide or less, and 

 the flowers are often fewer than 20. 



10. Lobelia Cardinalis L. Cardinal flower. Figs. 738 and 739. 



Perennial by short basal off'shoots. smoothish, to 2 m. high; stem simple, erect, 

 coarse, glabrous or pubescent; leaves numerous, thin, glabrous or hirtellous, ovate 

 to lanceolate, irregularly serrate; raceme terminal, simple, to 5 dm. long, some- 

 what 1 -sided; pedicels bristly-puberulent, much shorter than the leafy bracts, 

 bibracteolate near base; bracts linear or broader; pedicels seldom more than 1.5 

 cm. long In fruit; flowers 3-5 cm. long; calyx lobes foliaceous, ovate to broadly 

 lanceolate, to 14 mm. long and 6 mm. wide, undulate or crisped, ciliate and 

 serrate; corolla vermilion or deep-red. the fenestrate tube 1.5-2 cm. long; filament 

 tube 24-33 mm. long, long-exserted; anther tube 3-5.5 mm. long, bluish-gray; 

 capsule 8-10 mm. long. 



In wet or moist soil, open places along streams, in meadows and along road- 

 sides, about springs and ponds, in swamps where shade is not too dense, through- 

 out Tex., except the s. tip, throughout Okla., w. through N.M. to Ariz., May- 

 Dec; from Fla., n. to n.e. N.B., s. Que., S. Ont., Mich., Wise, and Minn., w. to 

 Nev., Calif, and Mex. 



The subsp. graminea (Lam.) McVaugh (L. splendens Willd.) is represented in 

 our region by three varieties of which two, var. multi flora (Paxt.) McVaugh and 

 var. pseudosplendens McVaugh, occur in the Texas Trans-Pecos region only. The 

 remaining one, var. phyllostachya (Engelm.) McVaugh, is the prevailing cardinal 

 flower across the central part of Texas. Although the distinguishing characteristics 

 of each are given in the key, many intermediate forms occur, and it is often not 

 possible to assign individual plants definitely to any one variety; often only the 

 extreme forms are recognizable. 



4. Porterella Torr. 

 A monotypic genus. 



1. Porterella carnosula (Hook. &. Arn.) Torr. Fig. 740. 



Erect, somewhat succulent, annual herb; stems branched, slender to stout, 6-30 

 cm. tall; herbage glabrous; leaves linear to lanceolate, sessile, 1-3 cm. long, the 

 tip acute or acuminate; flowers solitary in the leaf axils on slender spreading or 

 ascending pedicels; sepals linear-lanceolate, 3-10 mm. long; corolla blue to white, 

 bilabiate, the tube short-cylindrical to somewhat enlarged above, 4-6 mm. long, 

 the lower lip 3-lobed, rotately spreading, the lobes broadly obovate to nearly 

 orbicular, with a broad white area and a central greenish-yellow spot conforming 

 to 2 low ridges near the base of the lip, the upper lobes oblong-lanceolate, united 

 at base, somewhat divergent; stamen column united throughout, the filament tube 

 included, 3-7 mm. long, the anther tube 1.5-3 mm. long, the orifice subapical, 

 the anthers all tufted at tip, the 2 short ones each with a scalelike bristle; ovary 

 inferior, obconic to turbinate, 5-angled. bilocular, 8-14 mm. long. 



Vernal pools, wet meadows and margins of streams in Ariz. (Coconino Co.), 

 June-July; Wyo. to Ore., s. to n. Ariz, and n. Calif. 



1583 



