208 LOBELIA FAMILY. 



lengthens and elevates the pappus ; then the involucre is reflexed, the pappus 

 spreads, and with the fruit is blown away by the wind. 



73. LACTUCA, LETTUCE. (Ancient Latin name, from the milkyjuice. ) 

 L. satlva, Garden Lettuce. Cultivated from Europe, the broad and 



tender root-leaves used for salad ; stem-leaves heart-shaped and clasping ; 

 flowers yellow. ® ® 



L. Canadensis, Wild Lbttcce. Open grounds, 3° -9° high, with 

 lanceolate or oblong leaves often pinnatifid, sometimes entire; flowers pale 

 yellow, sometimes purple or reddish. ® 



74. MULGEDIUM, FALSE or BLUE LETTUCE. (Name from 

 Latin rmdgeo, to milk. ) El. summer, in thicket-borders, &c. 



M. acuminatum, from New York to III. & S. ; 3° - 6° high, with ovate 

 or lance-ovate barely serrate leaves on winged petioles, blue flowers, and bright 

 white pappus. ® 



M. FXoridanum, from Penn. W. & S. ; like the first, but with all the 

 leaves or the lower ones lyrate or runcinate, uppermost partly clasping. © 



M. leucophseum, in low grounds : resembles Wild Lettuce, and with 

 equally variable lanceolate or oblong often irregularly pinnatifid leaves, very 

 compound panicle of pale blue or bluish-white flowers, and tawny pappus. (D > 



75. S6KCHUS, SOW-THISTLE. (Ancient Greek name.) Coarse 

 weeds, with soft-spiny-toothed runcinate-pinnatifld leaves : uat. from Eu. : 

 fl. summer. 



S. oler^ceus. Common S. ; in manured soil and damp waste places ; 1° - 

 5° high, acute auricles to the clasping base of the leaves, pale yellow flowers, 

 and akeues wrinkled transversely. (T) 



•S. &sper, like the last, but the leaves less divided and more spiny-toothed, 

 the auricles of their clasping base rounded, and akenes smooth with 3 nerves on 

 each side. ® 



S. arv^nsis, Field S. Less common E. ; 1° - 2° high from creeping 

 root-stocks, vrith larger heads of bright yeUow flowers, and bristly peduncles 

 and involucre. % 



62. LOBELIACE.ffi, LOBELIA FAMILY. 



Plants with milky acrid juice, alternate simple leaves, and scat- 

 tered racemed or panicled flowers ; the calyx-tube adherent to the 

 many-seeded ovary and pod ; the corolla irregularly 5-lobed and 

 mostly split down as it were on the upper side ; the 5 stamens 

 united into a tube commonly by their filaments and always by their 

 anthers ; style only one. 



Downingia elegans, under the older name of Clint6nia elegans, and 

 D. pulchella, formerly Clint6nia pulchella, are delicate little annu- 

 als from California, sparingly cultivated. They resemble small Lobelias, with 

 very bright blue flowers, but are known by the very long and slender 1-celled 

 pod, and short tube of corolla not much split down. The first has the 2 narrow 

 lobes approaching each other opposite the 3-lobed lip which has a whitish centre. 

 The second has a larger corolla, with centre of the 3-lobed lip yellow and white, 

 and the 2 other lobes widely diverging. — The other common plants of the 

 order belong to 



1. LOBJSLIA (named after the herbalist Dc i'Oie^ or ZoW). Tube of the 

 calyx and 2-celled pod short. Corolla split down on one side, the 5 lobes 

 more or less irregular or unequal. Two or all 5 anthers bearded at top. 



