From Blue to Purple 



tion, a few perfect blossoms spread their violet wheels, while 

 below them insignificant earlier flowers, which, although they 

 have never opened, nor reared their heads above the hollows of 

 the little shell-like leaves where they lie secluded, have, never- 

 theless, been producing seed without imported pollen while 

 their showy sisters slept. But the later blooms, by attracting 

 insects, set cross-fertilized seed to counteract any evil tendencies 

 that might weaken the species if it depended upon self-fertiliza- 

 tion only. When the European Venus' looking-glass used to be 

 cultivated in gardens here, our grandmothers tell us it was alto- 

 gether too prolific, crowding out of existence its less fruitful, bu' 

 more lovely, neighbors. 



The Small Venus' Looking-glass {L. biflora), of similar habit 

 to the preceding, but with egg-shaped or oblong leaves seated on, 

 not clasping, its smooth and very slender stem, grows in the 

 South and westward to California. 



Great Lobelia; Blue Cardinal-flower 



[Lobelia syphilitica) Bellflower family 



Flowers — Bright blue, touched with white, fading to pale blue, 

 about I in. long, borne on tall, erect, leafy spike;. Calyx 5- 

 parted, the lobes sharply cut, hairy. Corolla tubular, open to 

 base on one side, 2-lipped, irregularly 5-lobed, the petals pro- 

 nounced at maturity only. Stamens 5, united by their hairy 

 anthers into a tube around the style ; larger anthers smooth. 

 Stem: i to } ft. high, stout, simple, leafy, slightly hairy. 

 Leaves: Alternate, oblong, tapering, pointed, irregularly 

 toothed, 2 to 6 in. long, Y^Xo 2 m. wide. 



Preferred Habitat— }Ao\?X or wet soil ; beside streams. 



Flowering Season — July — October. 



Distribution — Ontario and northern United States west to Dakota, 

 south to Kansas and Georgia. 



To the evolutionist, ever on the lookout for connecting links, 

 the lobelias form an interesting group, because their corolla, slit 

 down the upper side and somewhat flattened, shows the begin- 

 ning of the tendency toward the strap or ray flowers that are 

 nearly confined to the composites of much later development, 

 of course, than tubular single blossoms. Next to massing their 

 flowers in showy heads, as the composites do, the lobelias have 

 the almost equally advantageous plan of crowding theirs along a 

 stem so as to make, a conspicuous advertisement to attract the 

 passing bee and to offer him the special inducement of numerous 

 feeding places close together. 



The handsome Great Lobelia, constantly and invidiously com- 



67 



