208 LOBELIA FAMILY. 



lengthens and elevates the pappus ; then the involucre is reflexed, the -pappus 

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



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

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



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

 flowers yellow. 



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

 lanceolate or oblong leaves often pinnatifid, 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. 



M. Ploridanum, 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 pinnatifid leaves, very 

 compound panicle of pale blue or bluish-white flowers, and tawny pappus. 



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

 weeds, with soft-spiny-toothed runcinate-pinnatifid leaves : nat. from Eu. : 

 fl. summer. 



S. oleraceus, COMMOX 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. 2/ 



62. LOBELIACE^I, LOBELIA FAMILY. 



Plants with milky acrid juice, alternate simple leaves, 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. 



Downingia elegans, under the older name of CLINT6NIA ELEGANS, and 

 D. pulchella, formerly CLINT6NIA PULCHELLA, are delicate little annu- 

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

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

 and short tube of corolla not much spfit down. The first has the 2 narrow 

 3 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 I'Obd or Ldbd). 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 authors boarded at top. 



