306 LOBELIACE.K. (lOBELIA FAMILY.) 



— Perennial by offsets, with large and very showy intensely red flowers, vary- 

 ing rarely to rose-color or even white. Hybrids with the next species also 

 occur. 



* * Flowers blue, or blue variegated with white. 



*- Flowers rather large {corolla-tube 5-6'' long), spicate-racemose ; stems leafy ^ 



1-3° high ; perennial. 

 ■*-*■ Leaves ovate to lanceolate, numerous ; lip of corolla glabrous. 



2. Xi. syphilitica, L. (Great Lobelia.) Somewhat hairy; leavet, 

 thin, acute at both ends (2-6' long), irregularly serrate ; flowers (nearly 1' 

 long) pedicelled, longer than the leafy bracts ; calyx hirsute, the sinuses with 

 conspicuous dejiexed auricles, the short tube hemispherical. — Low grounds, 

 common. — Flowers light blue, rarely white. 



3. L. puberula, Michx. Finehj soft-pubescent; leaves thickish, obtuse 

 (1 -2' long), with small glandular teeth ; spike rather 1 -sided ; bracts ovate; 

 tinuses of the calyx with short and rounded or often inconspicuous auricles, the 

 hairy tube top-shaped. — Moist sandy grounds, N. J. to Iowa, and south to Tex. 

 and Fla. — Corolla bright blue, Y long. 



4. L. amdena, Michx. Glabrous or nearly so ; raceme \argate ; leaves 

 narrower ; bracts lanceolate or linear, often glandular-denticulate ; calyx-lobes 

 long and very slender, usually without auricles, the tube glabrous. — S. Atlantic 

 States, in swamps. — Var. GLANDULfpERA, Gray ; a slender form with secund 

 raceme, oval to lance-oblong obtuse gland-toothed leaves, and the bracts and 

 calyx-teeth beset with slender gland-tipped teeth. S. Va. and southward. 



■*-*■ ++ Leaves long and narrow, sparse above ; lip of corolla pubescent at base. 



5. L. glandul6sa, Walt. Glabrous, or sparingly pubescent; leaves, 

 bracts, and usually the lobes of the calyx, strongly glandular-toothed ; calyx- 

 tube densely hispid, rarely sparsely so or smoothish, the sinuses not auriculate. 

 — Pine-barren swamps, S. Va. to Fla. 



t- ■»- Flowers smaller (corolla-tube not more than 2-3" long). 



++ Stem leafy, mostly simple, continued into an elongated virgate spike-like ra- 

 ceme ; leaves lanceolate to obovate, barely denticulate or repand. 



6. L. leptostaehys, A. DC. Smooth above ; leaves obtuse, denticulate, 

 oblong-lanceolate, the upper gradually reduced to awl-shaped bracts ; calyx- 

 lobes nearly equalling the corolla, with 10 reflexed awl-shaped appendages 

 as long as the hemispherical tube. — Sandy soil, Ohio to 111. and Mo.; also Va. 

 io Ga. 



7. L. spic^ta, Lam. Stem slender, strict (1 -4° high) from a biennial (?) 

 root, below and the barely denticulate leaves minutely pubescent ; lower and 

 root-leaves obovate or spatulate, the upper reduced to linear or club-shaped 

 bracts ; calyx-tube short, obconical or becoming almost hemispherical, sinuses 

 not appendaged. — Moist or dry, mostly gravelly or sandy soil, N. New Eng. 

 to Sask., south to Ark. and La. Fl. through summer. — Var. parvifl6ra, 

 Gray, a small form, with calyx-lobes broadly subulate, and pale corolla but 3" 

 long. Swamps, Lancaster, Penn. (Porter) ; beginning to flower in June. — Var. 

 HiRTELLA, Gray ; with somewhat scabrous pubescence, and minutely hirsute- 

 ciliate bracts and calyx-lobes. Chiefly toward and beyond the jMissiseippi. 



