124 PLANTS GROWING IN MOIST SOIL. 
hairy plant, and its blue, although fading to almost white, is 
sufficiently noticeable to attract the insects’ attention. Both of 
these flowers are cleverly designed for cross-fertilization. 
The generic name lobelia has become so familiar to us that we 
use it freely and are unconscious of its being more difficult to 
manage than the common name, In this connection it comes 
to the mind to ask if not all botanical names would become 
equally simple if we would but put ourselves on closer terms of 
intimacy with them, 
L. spicata is also found in moist, open places. Its stem is 
high ; but its flowers are considerably smaller than those of the 
species described above. 
ROUND-LEAVED PSORALEA. (Plate LXT) 
Psoralea orbitcularzs. 
FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 
Pulse. Purplish. Scentless. Western and southern states. Early summer. 
Flowers: growing in a dense, pyramidal spike. Calyx: deeply parted ; of 
five, nearly equal teeth ; hairy. Coro//a: papilionaceous ; the standard rather 
oblong. Stamens: ten; united by their filaments. eaves: three-foliate ; 
orbicular ; entire ; hairy ; on long peduncles. Stem: prostrate ; creeping. 
This herbaceous plant, with its creeping stem, is a native of 
California. There is a vigour and energy about its growth 
which is very pleasing. One also fancies that like John Gilpin’s 
w fe it is blessed with a frugal mind. 
WILD MINT. 
Meéntha Canadénsis. 
FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 
Mint. Pinkish lavender. Like pennyroyal. Mostly north. August, September. 
Flowers : tiny ; growing in round clusters in the axils of the leaves. Calyx : 
five-toothed. Covol/a:; tubular ; four-lobed ; the upper lobe being larger and 
cleft at the top. Stamens: four; exserted. /vst#/: one; style, two-iobed. 
Leaves ; opposite ; ovate-lanceolate, pointed at both ends ; veined ; serrated; 
rough underneath. Stem: four-angled ; nearly erect. 
The usefulness of a magnifying glass is well illustrated by 
the wild mint ; as its two styles and the tiny notch of one of its 
corolla-lobes are hardly perceptible to the naked eye. M. Can- 

