Ord 44. LOBELIACE^. 



1. DOWNINGIA, Torr. (Clintonia, Dough) 



1. DOWNINGIA ELEGANS, Tort. 



Clintonia elegans, Lindl. Bot. Keg. t. 1241 ; A. DC. Prodr. 7, p. 347 ; Nutt. in 



Amer. Phil. Trans, n. ser. 8, p. 252. 

 C. corymbosa, A. DC. 1. c. 



Hab. Interior of Washington Territory and Western Oregon. — Our 

 specimens are mostly dwarfish, being not more than 3 or 4 inches 

 high, but they are probably young. In cultivation it attains a much 

 larger size. Mr. Nuttall states that the taste of the plant is nearly 

 as sweet as that of young lettuce, and that it is greedily cropped by 

 deer and other animals. The sap is watery. 



Downingia pulchella, the Clintonia pulchella, Lindl. Bot. Reg. t. 

 1909, which occurs both in California and Oregon, is the handsomer 

 species, the larger lips of the corolla much dilated, deeply 3-lobed, 

 and intensely azure-blue, with a large white or yellowish centre. 



Downingia pusilla (Clintonia pusilla, Don) is the Chilian represen- 

 tative of the genus. 



In the Botany of Whipple's report [Pacif. R.R. Expl. 4, p. 116] I 

 changed the name given to this genus by Douglas, and published by 

 Lindley, because there is an earlier Clintonia of Rafinesque, now gen- 

 erally adopted. [The name adopted was in commemoration of the 

 late Andrew Jackson Downing, of Newburgh, New York, the well- 

 known writer upon horticulture, arboriculture, and landscape gar- 

 dening.] 



