Lobelia. LOBELIACE.E. 3 



N. ramosissimus, Nutt. Glabrous, except the minutely pubescent tuft of radical 

 leaves : calyx 5-cleft ; its tube turbinate, adnate to the lower third of the ovary and round- 

 ish capsule, which does not exceed the rather unequal lobes: corolla short (a line long), 

 soon separating into 3 or 5 parts or petals : filaments monadelphous above : seeds oblong- 

 oval. — PI. Gamb. (Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. n. ser. viii.), 254 ; Torr. ilex. Bound. 108, t. 35. — 

 Gravelly or sandy soil, California to New Mexico. 



N. longiflorus, Gray. Radical leaves more eanescent : calyx 5-parted, free from and 

 much shorter than the narrow oblong capsule, its lobes equal : corolla narrower, firmly 

 gamopetalous, fully 3 lines long, 3 or 4 times longer than the calyx : filaments long-mona- 

 delphous : seeds short-oval. — Proc. Am. Acad. xii. 60. — S. California, Wallace, Lemmon. 



2. LOBELIA, L. (Commemorates Matthias de V Obel, latinized Lobelius, an 

 early Flemish herbalist.) — Ours herbs, flowering in summer, some of them showy ; 

 common in the Atlantic, almost absent from the Pacific United States. Tube 

 of the corolla more or less disposed to split up in age into three pieces or into 

 its five petals ; at least the two shorter anthers with a bearded tuft at tip. 



§ 1. Homochilus, A. DC. Lips of the corolla somewhat equal ; one of them 

 3-toothed, the other 2-parted : flowers long-peduncled from the a,xil of leaves 

 or large leafy bracts, in ours red and yellow : perennials. 



L. laxiflora, HBK., var. angustifolia. Tall and branching: leaves lanceolate or 

 even linear, 3 or 4 inches long, denticulate : peduncles 2 to 4 inches and corolla an inch 

 long: calyx-lobes hardly longer than the tube. — L. persiewfolia, HBK., not Lam. L. 

 Cuvanillesii, Mart. ; Hook. Bot. Mag. t. 3600. — Damp ground, just below the Mexican 

 border of Arizona, north of Arispe, Tlmrber. (Mex.) A form intermediate in the breadth 

 of the leaves between the var. and the L. Cavanillesii, Cav. Ic. t. 518, or the plant culti- 

 vated as Siplwcampylus bicolor. Anthers sometimes long-hirsute externally, sometimes 

 nearly naked. 



§ 2. Eulobelia. (Eulobelia, Hemipogon, & Holopogon, Benth. & Hook.) 

 Larger lip of the corolla 3-parted or 3-cleft and spreading or dependent ; the 

 other two lobes either erect or turned backward: flowers racemose or spicate. 



# Flowers bright red, large and showy, on erect or ascending pedicels in a virgate raceme : larger 

 anthers naked at tip: perennial from slender offshoots, tlic llowering plants dying throughout in 

 autumn. 



L. cardinalis, L. (Cardinai^flower.) Minutely pubescent or glabrous : stem 2 to 4 feet 

 high, commonly simple : leaves from oblong-ovate to oblong-lanceolate, tapering to both 

 ends, irregularly serrate or serrulate : lower bracts leafy : tube of calyx and capsule hemi- 

 spherical, much shorter than the subulate linear lobes : tube of the corolla about an inch 

 long: seeds oblong, rugose-tuberculate : the intense red of the corolla varying rarely to 

 rose-color or even white. — Bot. Mag. t. 320; Bart. Med. Bot. t. 48. — Wet ground, New 

 Brunswick to the Saskatchewan, Florida, and the borders of Texas. 



L. splendens, Willd. More slender, glabrous or nearly so : leaves lanceolate or almost 

 linear, glandular-denticulate, all but the lower sessile : seeds less tuberculate : otherwise 

 very like the preceding. — Hort. Berol. t. 86, the corolla-lobes larger and longer than in 

 wild specimens. L. Texensis, Raf. Ann. Nat. (1833) 20. — Wet grounds, Texas and through 

 New Mexico and Arizona to southern borders of San Diego Co., California, Palmer. 

 Also Mexico. Lobes of the corolla in our plant (as in many Mexican) only 3 to 6 lines 

 long. Anthers sometimes a little hairy on the back. 



* * Flowers blue or partly white, sometimes varying to white: tips of the three larger anthers 

 naked or short-bearded, or rarely with a tuft like the other two. 



•+- Flowers rather large (tube of the corolla half or over a third of an inch long), spicate-racemose: 

 capsule short and broad : stems leafy: plants perennial, mostly by offsets. 



++ Leaves short and small (about half an inch long), thickish, very numerous up to the inflores- 

 cence, and passing into foliaceous bracts. 

 L. brevifolia, Nutt. Glabrous or minutely pubescent : stem virgate and simple, a foot 

 or two high : leaves rather fleshy, strongly toothed, mostly 2 lines broad ; the lowest 



