LOBELIACEvE-LOBELIA FAMILY 



Herbs with acrid, milky juice and alternate leaves. The corolla is 

 very irregular, always five-lobed,-and sometimes two-lipped; the tube 

 split down on the upper side. The five stamens are united into a 



tube commonly by their filaments 

 and always by their anthers; from 

 this tube the style and stigma pro- 

 trude. The calyx-tube adheres to 

 the many-seeded pod. 



In cultivation are the many 

 garden forms of LoMlia erlnis 

 and two native species, Cardinal- 

 Flower and Great Lobelia. 



BLUE LOBELIA 



Lobelia erinus. 



Blue Lobelia. LobUia erinus 



Lobelia, in honor of Matthias von 

 Lobel, a Flemish botanist and 

 writer; 1538-1616, 



The low, annual, little Lobelia of hanging-baskets and summer gar- 

 dens; variable, cultivated under many names; flowers abundant, blue, 

 usually white in the throat. Cape of Good Hope. 



Slem. — Diffuse, almost trailing, six to twelve inches high. 



Leaves. — Alternate, variable, varying from obovate to acute and from 

 crenate to serrate. 



Flowers. — Small, on slender pedicels, light -blue with a lighter centre. 



Calyx. — Lobes five, awl-like, spreading. 



Corolla. — Irregular, with a straight tube split down on the upper side; 

 two-lipped; the upper lip two-lobed, cut between the lobes; the lower 

 spreading and three-cleft. 



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