306 LOBELIACE^E. (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. 



-i- 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. L. syphilitica, L. (GREAT LOBELIA.) Somewhat hair;/; leaves 

 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 dejlf.refl auricles, the short tube hemispherical. Low grounds, 

 common. Flowers light blue, rarely white. 



3. L. pub6rula, Michx. Finely soft-pubescent; leaves (hickish, obtuse 

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

 sinuses 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, |' long. 



4. L. amoetia, Michx. Glabrous or nearly so; raceme virgate; 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. GLANDUTJFERA, 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 narrate, sparse above ; lip of corolla pubescent at base. 



5. L. glandulosa, 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. 



- >- 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. leptostachys, A. DC. Smooth above ; leaves obtuse, denticulate, 

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

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

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

 to Ga. 



7. L. spicata, 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. PARVIFI^RA, 

 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 beyoiid the Mississippi. 



