NAT. ORDER. 



Lobeliacec£. 



LOBELIA SYPHILITICA. BLUE LOBELIA, 



Class V. Pentandria. Order I. Monogynia. 



Gen. Char. Calyx five-cleft. Corolla one-petalled, irregular. Cap- 

 sules inferior, two or three-celled. 



Spc. Char. Stem erect, rather hairy. Leaves ovate, lanceolate, sub- 

 scrate. Sinuses of the calyx reflex. 



The rOi. is perennial, and furnished with innumerable small white 

 fibres ; the stem is upright, strong, simple, smooth, and rises from two 

 to three feet in hciglit ; the leaves growing near the top of the stem 

 are oval and pointed, those at the bottom rather elliptical, and obtusely 

 lancc-shaped ; they are both minutely serrated, veined, smooth, and 

 without footstalks ; the Jlowcrs are numerous, large, blue, and grow 

 upon a long spike, o.i short peduncles ; the corolla consists of a long 

 tube, which is nearly cylindrical, and divided at the limb into five 

 pointed oval segments, of a rich blue color ; the calyx is composed of 

 five halbert-shaped leaves, fringed at the margin, and reflected at each 

 side ; the filaments are five, tapering, equal in length to the tube of 

 the corolla, and closely connected at the top by the anthers j the ger- 

 men is short and oonical ; the style is about the length of the stamens, 

 which terminates with a blunt, hairy stigma ; the capsule is oval, and 

 divided into two cells, which contain many small seeds. 



Lobelia, of which there are at least fifty difltrcnt species, was 

 first introduced to botanical notice by M. Lobel, physician and bot- 

 anist to James I., of England, from whom the plant derived its name. 



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