LOBELIACE.E. (LOBELIA FAMILY.) 305 



8. L. leucophgea, Gray. Nearly smooth biennial; stem tall (3-12 

 high), very leafy ; leaves irregularly pinnatifid, sometimes runcinate, coarsely 

 toothed, the upper cauliue sessile and auriculate, sometimes clasping ; heads 

 in a large and dense compound panicle ; flowers bluish to cream-color ; achene 

 short-beaked; pappus tawny. (Mulgedium, DC.) Low grounds; rather 

 common. Var. IXTEGRIFOLIA, Gray. Leaves undivided, or the lower sinu- 

 ate-piuuatifid. Ohio to 111. 



98. SONCHUS, L. SOW-THISTLE. 



Heads many-flowered, becoming tumid at base. Involucre more or less im- 

 bricated. Achenes obcompressed, ribbed or striate, not beaked ; pappus copious, 

 of very white exceedingly soft and flue bristles mainly falling together. Leafy- 

 stemmed coarse weeds, chiefly smooth and glaucous, with corymbed or umbel- 

 late heads of yellow flowers ; produced in summer aud autumn. (The ancient 

 Greek name.) 



* Annual (1-5 high) ; /lowers pale yellow. 



S. OLERACEUS, L. (COMMON SOW-THISTLE.) Stem-leaves runcinate-pin- 

 natifid, or rarely undivided, slightly toothed with soft spiny teeth, clasping by 

 a heart-shaped base, the auricles acute ; involucre downy when young ; achenes 

 striate, also wrinkled transversely. Waste places in manured soil and around 

 dwellings. (Nat. from Eu.) 



S. ASPER, Vill. (SPINY-LEAVED S.) Stem-leaves less divided and more 

 spiny-toothed, the auricles of the clasping base rounded ; achenes margined, 

 3 -nerved on each side, smooth. With and like the last. (Nat. from Eu.) 



* * Perennial, with creeping rootstocks ; flowers bright yellow, in large heads. 



S. ARVEXSIS, L. (FIELD S.) Leaves runcinate-pinnatifid, spiny-toothed, 

 clasping by a heart-shaped base ; peduncles and involucre bristly ; achenes 

 transversely wrinkled on the ribs. Roadsides, etc., N. Eng. and N. Y. ; be- 

 coming more common. (Nat. from Eu.) 



ORDER 56. LOBELIACE^E. (LOBELIA FAMILY.) 



Herbs with acrid milky juice, alternate leaves, and scattered flowers, an 

 irregular monopetalous 5-lobed corolla . the 5 stamens free from the corolla, 

 and united into a tube commonly by their filaments and always by their 

 anthers. Calyx-tube adherent to the many-seeded pod. Style 1 , stigma 

 often fringed. Seeds anatropous, with a small straight embryo, in copious 

 albumen. Nearly passing into the following order. 



1. LOBELIA, L. 



Calyx 5-cleft, with a short tube. Corolla with a straight tube, split down on 

 the (apparently) upper side, somewhat 2-lipped ; the upper lip of 2 rather erect 

 lobes, the lower lip spreading and 3-cleft. Two of the anthers in our species 

 bearded at the top. Pod 2-celled, many-seeded, opening at the top. Elowers 

 axillary or chiefly in bracted racemes , in summer and early autumn. (Dedi- 

 cated to Matthias De I'Obel, an early Flemish herbalist.) 



* blowers deep red, large ; stem simple. 



1. L. cardinalis, L. (CARDINAL-FLOWER.) Tall (2-4 high), smooth- 

 ish; leaves oblong-lanceolate, slightly toothed; raceme elongated, rather 1 -sided; 

 the pedicels much shorter than the leaf-like bracts. Low grounds, common. 



20 



