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COMPOSITE. (COMPOSITE FAMILY.) 
nate-pinnatifid, spiny-toothed, clasping by a heart-shaped base, the au¬ 
ricles obtuse; peduncles and involucre bristly; achenia transversely 
wrinkled on the ribs.— Introduced and sparingly naturalized in Essex 
county, Massachusetts, Staten Island, and New Jersey. Sept.— 
Heads large. 
Order 57. EOBELIACEiE. (Lobelia Family.) 
Herbs , often with milky juice , with alternate leaves and 
scattered flowers , an irregular inonopetalous 5-lobed corob 
la split down to the base on one side ; the 5 stamens free 
from the corolla , and united into a tube both by their fila¬ 
ments and their anthers. —Calyx-tube adherent to the many- 
seeded pod. Style 1 : stigma fringed. Seeds anatropous, 
with albumen. 
1. LOBELIA, L. Lobelia. 
Calyx 5-cleft, with a short ovoid or hemispherical tube. Co¬ 
rolla with a straight tube, split down on the upper side ; the limb 
somewhat 2-lipped ; the upper lip of 2 rather erect lobes, the lower 
spreading and 3-cleft. Pod 2-celled, many-seeded, opening at the 
top. — Flowers axillary or chiefly in bracted racemes. Plants 
acrid and poisonous. (Dedicated to Lobel , a Flemish botanist of 
the close of the 16th century.) 
* Flowers deep red. 
X. E. cardinalis, L. (Cardinal-flower.) Tall, smooth- 
ish; leaves oblong-lanceolate, acute at both ends, slightly toothed; 
raceme elongated, rather 1-sided; the pedicels much shorter than the 
leaf-like bracts ; calyx-lobes shorter than the corolla. —Low grounds, 
common. July - Oct. — Perennial by offsets, 2°-3° high, with large 
and very showy intensely red flowers, — rarely varying to rose-color! 
(Plymouth, Mr. Gilbert ), and sometimes pure white ! 
* * Floicers light blue , or variegated with white. 
Stem leafy. 
2. E. syphilitica, L. (Great Lobelia.) Tall, somewhat 
hairy and simple; leaves ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acute , slightly 
toothed ; raceme or spike leafy, the pedicels not half the length of 
the floral leaves; lobes of the hairy calyx half the length of the corolla , 
the obtuse reflexed auricles shorter than the tube. 1J. Low grounds. 
Aug. — Flowers bright blue, nearly V long. 
3. E. puherula, Michx. (Pale-leaved Lobelia.) Rather 
tall, simple, minutely downy-pubescent ; leaves ovate or oblong , obtuse , 
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