208 LOBELIA FAMILY. 



lengthens and elevates the pappu? ; then the involucre is reflexed, the pappus 

 spreads, and with the fruit is blown away by the wind. 



N 73. LACTUCA, LETTUCE. (Ancient Latin name, from the milky juice. ) 

 L. sativa, GARDEN LETTUCE. Cultivated from Europe, the broad and 



tender root-leaves used for salad ; stem-leaves heart-shaped and clasping ; 



flowers yellow. (2) 



L. Canad6nsis, WILD LETTUCE. Open grounds, 3 -9 high, with 



lanceolate or oblong leaves often pinnatirid, sometimes entire ; flowers pale 



yellow, sometimes purple or reddish. 



74. MULGEDIUM, FALSE or BLUE LETTUCE. (Name from 

 Latin mulgeo, to milk.) Fl. summer, in thicket-borders, &c. 



M. acuminatum, from New York to 111. & S. ; 3 - 6 high, with ovate 

 or lance-ovate barely serrate leaves on winged petioles, blue flowers, and bright 

 white pappus. (2) 



M. Floridanum, from Penn. W. & S. ; like the first, but with all the 

 leaves or the lower ones lyrate or runcinate, uppermost partly clasping. 



M. leucophaeum, in low grounds : resembles Wild Lettuce, and with 

 equally variable lanceolate or oblong often irregularly pinnatilkl leaves, very 

 compound panicle of pale blue or bluish-white (lowers, and tawny pappus. (2) 



75. SONCHUS, SOW-THISTLE. (Ancient Greek name.) Coarse 

 weeds, with soft-spiny-toothcd runcinatc-pinnatih'd leaves : nat. from Eu. : 

 fl. summer. 



S. oleraceus, COMMON S. ; in manured soil and damp waste places; 1- 

 5 high, acute auricles to the clasping base of the leaves, pale yellow flowers, 

 and akenes wrinkled transversely, 



S. asper, like the last, but the leaves less divided and more spiny-toothed, 

 the auricles of their clasping base rounded, and akenes smooth with 3 nerves on 

 each side. 



S. arv6nsis, FIELD S. Less common E. ; l-2 high from creeping 

 root-stocks, with larger heads of bright yellow flowers, and bristly peduncles 

 and involucre. 



62. LOBELTACE^l, LOBELIA FAMILY. 



Plants with milky acrid juice, alternate simple leave-, and scat- 

 tered racemed or panicled flowers ; the calyx-tube adherent to the 

 many-seeded ovary and pod ; the corolla irregularly 5-lobed and 

 mostly split down as it were on the upper side ; the 5 stamens 

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

 anthers; style only one. 



Downiugia elegans, under the older name of CLIXT6NIA ELEGANS, and 

 D. pulch^lla, formerly CLINT6NIA PULCHELLA, are delicate little annu- 

 als from California, sparingly cultivated. They resemble' small Lobelias, with 

 very bright blue flowers, but' are known by the very long and slender 1 -celled 

 pod, and short tube of corolla not much split down. The first has the 2 narrow 

 lobes approaching each other opposite the 3-lobed lip which has a whitish centre. 

 The second has a larger corolla, with centre of the 3-lobed lip yellow and white, 

 and the 2 other lobes widely diverging. The other common plants of the 

 order belong to 



1. LOBELIA (named after the herbalist De l'0!>d or IM). Tube of the 

 calyx and 2-celled pod short. Corolla split down on one side, the 5 lobes 

 more or less irregular or unequal. Two or all 5 anthers bearded at top. 



