WILD FLOWERS OF NEW YORK 279 



calyx, longer than the rudimentary corolla. Fruit an oblong capsule, one- 

 sixth to one-fourth of an inch long, opening at maturity at about the middle. 

 In dry woods and dry soil, especially sandy fields and waste places, 

 Maine and Ontario to British Columbia south to Florida, Louisiana, Mexico, 

 Arizona and Oregon. Also in the mountains of Jamaica and Santo 

 Domingo. Flowering in New York from May to Seotember. 



Lobelia Family 



Lobeliaceae 

 Cardinal Flower; Red Lobelia 



Lobelia cardinalis Linnaeus 



Plate 220 



A tall, stiffly erect herb, i| to 4 feet high with smooth stems from a 

 perennial root, rarely branched, leafy, bearing an elongated, rather one- 

 sided raceme or spike of several or many bright-red flowers, subtended by 

 leaflike bracts. Leaves thin, somewhat toothed, oblong-lanceolate, 2 to 6 

 inches long, one-fourth to ih inches wide, pointed at both ends, and alternate 

 on the stem, the upper leaves becoming successively smaller. Flowers with 

 a five-cleft calyx; corolla five-lobed, about 1 inch long, two-lipped, the 

 lower lip conspicuously cleft into three prominent, spreading lobes, upper 

 lip erect with two small lobes. Stamens five, free from the corolla and 

 united by their anthers to form a tube around the style, two of the anthers 

 possessing hairy tufts at the summit; stigma two-lobed. Fruit a two- 

 celled, many-seeded pod, opening at the top. 



Low or wet ground in meadow r s, swamps and marshes, or in wet 



grassy places along streams or ditches. New Brunswick to Ontario, south 



to Florida and Texas, west to Kansas and Colorado. Flowering from July 



to September. 



Great or Blue Lobelia 



Lobelia syphilitica Linnaeus 



Plate 221 



A tall, stiffly erect herb, perennial by short offsets at the base; stem 

 1 to 3 feet high, stout, leafy, simple, slightly hairy, bearing a long, many- 



