230 ELEMENTS OF BOTANY. 



2. L. PERFOLiATA (L.) Bi'itt. Venus's Looking-glass. Stem 

 simple or branched, slightly pubescent, smooth or rough on the 

 angles, 1-2 ft. high ; leaves very numerous, round-cordate, clasping 

 at the base, crenate or sometimes entire ; flowers solitary or 2-3 

 together ; calyx teeth 3-5 ; corolla blue, sometimes wanting ; capsule 

 oblong, ribbed. May-September. Common in fields and waste 

 places. 



III. LOBELIA. 



Annual, biennial or perennial, with acrid, poisonous juice ; 

 stems erect ; leaves alternate, sometimes nearly all basal, 

 mostly setrate with glandular-pointed teeth ; flowers in termi- 

 nal, leafy-bracted spikes or racemes, red, white or blue, irregu- 

 lar ; calyx 5-lobed ; tube of the corolla straight or curved, 

 split to the base on one side, the limb bilabiate, the upper 

 lip smaller, with 2 erect or reflexed lobes, the lower lip 

 spreading, 3-lobed ; stamens 5, free from the corolla, mona- 

 delphous, some or all of the anthers with a tuft of hair at 

 the apex, united around the style; ovary 2-celled, many- 

 ovuled, style single, slender, stigma 2-lobed, fringed ; fruit 

 a 2-celled, many-seeded, capsule. 



1. L. PALUDOSA Nutt. Swamp Lobelia. Perennial; stem 

 smooth and glabrous, simple or with a few erect branches, nearly 

 leafless, 2-4 ft. high ; leaves mostly basal, fleshy, spatulate to linear, 

 entire or denticulate, the lower narrowed into a petiole, the upper 

 sessile ; flowers small, pale blue or white, in loose racemes, bracts 

 small ; calyx lobes slender, not appendaged ; lower lip of the corolla 

 pubescent. May-August. Swamps in pine barrens. 



2. ■ L. CARDiNALis L. CARDINAL Flower. Perennial; stem 

 stout, smooth or slightly pubescent, simple, 2-4 ft. high ; leaves 

 numerous, oblong to lanceolate, acuminate at the apex, denticulate, 

 thin, smooth or slightly pubescent, the low^er petioled, the upper ses- 

 sile; flowers in a bracted raceme, bright scarlet, 1-1 1 in. long, very 

 showy ; bracts leaf-like ; calyx smooth or pubescent, not appendaged, 

 the lobes linear ; stamens and style exserted. June-September. On 

 wet soil. 



3. L. SYPHILITICA L. Blue Lobelia. Perennial ; stem stout, 

 pubescent, simple, 1-3 ft. high ; leaves very numerous, lanceolate to 

 oval, acute at each end, thin, smooth, coarsely serrate, sessile or the 

 lo^yer petioled ; flowers bright blue, in a dense, leafy raceme ; calyx 

 hairy, the lobes lanceolate, denticulate, hah the length of the corolla, 

 with deflexed, auricled appendages in the sinuses ; corolla about 1 

 in. long, glabrous. June-October. On w^et soil. 



