LOBELIA FEAYANA.—DR. FEAY’S LOBELIA. 139 
angular lobes. The garden Lobelia has the lip also in three 
divisions, but these divisions are mere slits; indeed at a little dis- 
tance the lip looks almost entire, and seems to have a regular 
semi-circular outline. — 
The whole structure of Lode/a is very interesting, and no 
less so the natural order to which it belongs, Lodeliacee. The 
plants of the order are not very far removed from the Aster 
family or composites on the one hand, and the Campanulas or 
Bell-flowers on the other; and in connection with these two afford 
a very pretty lesson respecting transition or gradation between 
great bodies in the vegetable kingdom. If we take a single 
flower of an Aster, we find the single pistil divided at the apex, 
the five anthers united together with their faces inward ; the pistil is 
at first shorter than the anthers, but ultimately lengthening, and 
pushing out as it grows the pollen from the tube formed by the 
united stamens. In Lobelia we have a monopetalous corolla, 
somewhat divided, and bursting irregularly on one side as 
composites do when forming strap-shaped florets. The calyx is 
generally united with the ovary, and the calyx lobes may be 
regarded as the equivalent of pappus or sete, which often crown 
the seed. It is chiefly in the ovarium that we first note any 
great distinction. In Lodelia the seed-vessel contains numerous 
small seeds, while in the composite there is but a single seed. 
But with the numerous points of correspondence we might 
expect to find some time a composite with more than one seed 
in the capsule, or a Lodelioac:ous plant with but a single one. 
And this is really the case in the latter instance, for there are 
some few genera of Lodefacee which have but a single seed. 
Few would ever mistake a Lodefia for a composite on a first 
acquaintance, yet we see how difficult it is in a search to trace 
very closely the essential points of difference. The same 
difficulty will occur on the other side with Campanulaceous 
plants. If the anthers were united here, and the pistil had a 
curving tendency, instead of the regular bell-shaped flower we 
find in Campanula we should have a structure probably bursting 
