THE HONEYSUCKLE TRIBE. 175 



irregular form, and its anthers grown together into a 

 cylinder through which the stigma projects, and you 

 will have a Lobelia^ many of the species of which, 

 such as L. CardinaliSf fulgens and splendens, are the 

 admiration of gardeners, on account of their velvety 

 scarlet flowers. Put not your faith in these, for they 

 are all acrid in the most intense degree, and fatal 

 alike to animals and man. They are very common 

 in tropical countries, and are chiefly American ; some 

 of them are herbs like those we see in the gardens, 

 others are bushes, or even small trees. Two of the 

 rarest of British plants are the burjiing Lobelia (L. 

 urens) of Devonshire, and the water Lobelia (L. 

 Dortmanna), which inhabits the very bottom of moun- 

 tainous or northern lakes. 



Resembling the Hare-bell tribe in its inferior ovary, 

 but far different in its essential characters, is the tribe 

 which takes its name from the Honeysuckle. To 

 understand the structure of this, you cannot do better 

 than study the Honeysuckle itself (Plate XIV. 2.). 

 The leaves of that plant are placed opposite each 

 other with great uniformity ; the uppermost even 

 grow together at their base ; in no case do you find 

 even a trace of stipules, or any thing like them ; a 

 material point, which I must beg you to remark. 



The flowers have a roundish green inferior ovary 

 (fig. 1. a.), terminated by a very minute five-toothed 

 calyx, and containing three cells (fig. 3.), in each of 

 which hancp two or three ovules. The corolla is a 

 tube, the end of which divides into two lips (fig. 1.), 

 one of which is narrow and undivided, the other cut 



