BLUE AND PURPLE GROUP 



remaining attached to the ovary, making a much inflated capsule 

 in fruit. Flowers, in loose racemes, all with leafy bi 

 upper very narrow. Leaves, thin, sessile. <>v;tte t<> <>l>].>ng, with 

 short petioles. Plant, 10 to 36 inches in height, hairy, much 

 branched, with an acrid juice. July to November. 



A poisonous plant, formerly used in the Thomsonian school 

 of medicine as an emetic. Dry soil, fields and thick 

 Common. 



Spiked Lobelia 



L. spickta. — Color, light blue. Flowers, small, in long, thin 

 spikes. Stem, leafy, unbranched, 1 to 4 feet high, slender. /.. 

 at the root, broad, obovate or tapering to short petioles; those 

 above reduced to small bracts. June to August. 



Damp, gravelly, or dry soil, in meadows. A smaller form 

 is found in swamps. Over all the Eastern States. Found 

 2,500 feet high in Virginia. 



Water Lobelia 

 L. Dortmdnna. — Color, purplish blue. Leaves, fleshy, all clus- 

 tered at the root, submerged, hollow, obtuse, with a partition 

 through the middle. Roots, white, fibrous. Flowers, in a loose, 

 terminal raceme, few, with pedicels. Scape, thickish, 6 (o 18 

 inches high. July to September. 



An aquatic, in ponds, near the borders, often wholly im- 

 mersed. New Jersey and Pennsylvania northward. 



L. CJinbyi. — Color, deep blue. Flowers, on pedicels, in loose 

 racemes, with linear bracts. Leaves, linear, very narrow above. 

 Stem, erect, branched, 2 to 3 feet high. Corolla, bearded in the 

 tube. Calyx, with long, thread-like teeth. 



Swamps and wet grounds, New Jersey to North Carolina. 

 Ironweed 



VerndnU n&veboracensis Family. Composite. ("<'/<>r, a rich 



purple. Corollas, all tubular. Fhnvcrs, in dense, thistle-like 

 heads, growing in irregular cymes. Involucre, composed of pur- 

 plish scales. 4 to 8 feet high. Leaves, long, narrow, alternate, 

 acute, rough, slightly toothed, 3 to 10 inches long. Heads. 20 t<> 

 40-flowered, all peduncled. July t<> September. 



In low meadows, moist soil, Maine t<» Virginia and west- 

 ward, near the coast. A tall, showy, common plant, vying 



with Joe Pyewecd in making the meadows bright with rich. 



355 



