BLUE AND PURPLE 



COMMON MOTHERWORT. 



Leomiriis cardiaca. Mint Family. 



Stem. — Tall and upright. Leaves. — Opposite ; the lower rounded and 

 lobed ; the floral wedge-shaped at base and three-cleft. Floivers. — Pale 

 purple; in close whorls in the axils of the leaves. Calyx. — "With five 

 nearly equal teeth, which are awl-shaped, and when old rather spiny-pointed 

 and spreading." (Gray.) Corolla. — Two-lipped; the upper lip somewhat 

 arched and bearded, the lower three-lobed and spreading. Stamens. — Four ; 

 in pairs. Pistil. — One, with a two-lobed style. 



The tall, erect stems, opposite leaves, and regular whorls of 

 closely clustered, pale purple flowers help us easily to identify the 

 motherwort, if identification be needed, for it seems as though 

 such old-fashioned, time-honored plants as catnip, tansy, and 

 motherwort, which cling so persistently to the skirts of the old 

 homestead in whose domestic economy they once played so im- 

 portant a part, should be familiar to us all. 



INDIAN TOBACCO. 



Lobelia injlata. Lobelia Family. 



One to two feet high. Stem. — Branching from the root. Leaves. — 

 Ovate or oblong ; somewhat toothed. Floivers. — Blue or purple ; growing 

 in a long raceme. Calyx. — Five-cleft. Corolla. — With a straight tube split 

 down what is apparently the upper side ; somewhat two-lipped ; the upper 

 lip of two rather erect lobes, the lower spreading and three-cleft. Stamens. 

 — Five; united into a tube. Pistil. — One. Pod. — Much inflated. 



During the summer we note in the dry, open fields the blue 

 racemes of the Indian tobacco, and in the later year the inflated 

 pods which give it its specific name. The plant is said to be 

 poisonous if taken internally, and yields a " quack-medicine " of 

 some notoriety. The Indianssmoked its dried leaves, which im- 

 part to the tongue a peculiar tobacco-like sensation. 



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