BLUE AND PURPLE GROUP 



remaining attached to the ovary, making a much inflated capsule 

 in fruit. Flowers, in loose racemes, all with leafy bracts, the 

 upper very narrow. Leaves, thin, sessile, ovate to oblong, with 

 short petioles. Plant, 10 to 36 inches in height, hairy, much 

 branched, with an acrid juice. July to November. 



A poisonous plant, formerly used in the Thomsonian school 

 of medicine as an emetic. Dry soil, fields and thickets. 

 Common. 



Spiked Lobelia 



L. spickta Color, light blue. Flowers, small, in long, thin 



spikes. Stem, leafy, unbranched, 1 to 4 feet high, slender. Leaves, 

 at the root, broad, obovate or tapering to short petioles; those 

 above reduced to small bracts. June to August. 



Damp, gravelly, or dry soil, in meadows. A smaller form 

 is found in swamps. Over all the Eastern States. Found 

 2,500 feet high in Virginia. 



Water Lobelia 



L. Dortmanna. — Color, purplish blue. Leaves, fleshy, all clus- 

 tered at the root, submerged, hollow, obtuse, with a partition 

 through the middle. Roots, white, fibrous. Flowers, in a loose, 

 terminal raceme, few, with pedicels. Scape, thickish, 6 to 18 

 inches high. July to September. 



An aquatic, in ponds, near the borders, often wholly im- 

 mersed. New Jersey and Pennsylvania northward. 



L. Canbyi. — Color, deep blue. Flowers, on pedicels, in loose 

 racemes, with linear bracts. Leaves, linear, very narrow above. 

 Stem, erect, branched, 2 to 3 feet high. Corolla, bearded in the 

 tube. Calyx, with long, thread-like teeth. 



Swamps and wet grounds, New Jersey to North Carolina. 



Ironweed 



Vernbnia nweboracensis Family, Composite. Color, a rich 



purple. Corollas, all tubular. Flowers, in dense, thistle-like 

 heads, growing in irregular cymes. Involucre, composed of pur- 

 plish scales. 4 to 8 feet high. Leaves, long, narrow, alternate, 

 acute, rough, slightly toothed, 3 to 10 inches long. Heads, 20 to 

 40-flowered, all peduncled. July to September. 



In low meadows, moist soil, Maine to Virginia and west- 

 ward, near the coast. A tall, showy, common plant, vying 

 with Joe Pyeweed in making the meadows bright with rich, 



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