282 LOBELIACE.fi. (LOBELIA FAMILY.) 



* # Pappus tawny : corolla pale blue, or cream-color turning bluish. 

 4. M. leucophsBUm, DC. Nearly smooth biennial; stem tall (3 -12 

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

 toothed, the uppermost often undivided and sometimes clasping ; heads in a 

 large and dense compound panicle. Low grounds : rather common. 



85. SONCHUS, L. SOW-THISTLE. 



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

 imbricated. Achenia flattened laterally, ribbed or striate, not beaked. Pappus 

 copious, of very white exceedingly soft and fine capillary bristles. Leafy- 

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

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

 Greek name.) 



* Annual ( 1 - 5 high) : flowers pale yellow. 



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

 pinnatifid, or rarely undivided, slightly toothed with soft spiny teeth, clasping 

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

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

 dwellings. (Nat. from Eu.) 



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

 spiny-toothed, the auricles of the clasping base rounded ; achenia 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. 



3. S. ARVENSIS, L. (FiELDS.) Leaves runcinate-pinnatifid, spiny-toothed, 

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

 versely wrinkled on the ribs. Roadsides, &c., New England and New York : 

 becoming more common. (Nat. from Eu.) 



ORDER 54. LOBELIACE^. (LOBELIA FAMILY.) 



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

 monopetalous n-lobed corolla; the 5 stamens free from the corolla, and united 

 into a tube commonly by their filaments and always ly 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. 

 Acrid poisonous plants (rather to be regarded as a part of the next 

 order), represented only by the genus 



1. LOBELIA, L. LOBELIA. 



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. Flowers 

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

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



