272 THE COMPOSITE FAMILY. [Lobelia. 



Trachelium coeruleum, a south European plant of early cultivation in 

 our flower-gardens, belongs to the same family. The Australian 

 Goodenias, Sccevolas, and their allies, often seen in our greenhouses, 

 form a small family, which may almost be considered as a tribe of 

 Campanulacece. 



I. LOBELIA. LOBELIA. 



Flowers in terminal racemes, usually leafless or nearly so. Corolla 

 very irregular, more or less cleft on the upper side, with 5 lobes usually 

 forming 2 lips ; the 2 upper lobes smallest, and erect or recurved : the 

 3 lower ones spreading, and less deeply divided. Anthers united in a 

 tube round the style, often hairy, or the 2 lower ones bearded at the 

 top. 



A numerous genus, widely spread over the globe, and yet wanting in 

 the greater part of the continent of Europe and northern Asia. Several 

 North American species, with brilliant scarlet or purple flowers, as well 

 as Cape or Australian ones with blue flowers, are much cultivated. 



Aquatic plant. Flowers drooping 1. L. Dortmanna. 



Heath plant. Flowers erect 2. L.urens. 



1. L. Dortmanna, Linn. (fig. 612). Water L. — An aquatic peren- 

 nial, with tufts of nearly cylindrical, hollow, radical leaves 1 to 2 inches 

 long, forming a dense green carpet at the bottom of the water, each 

 tuft proceeding from a small thick stock, with filiform creeping 

 runners. Flowering-stems erect and simple, rising about 6 or 8 inches 

 above the surface of the water, almost leafless. Flowers pale blue, 6 

 or 7 lines long, drooping, in a simple, loose terminal raceme. 



In shallows of lakes in northern Europe and America. Common in 

 the lakes of Scotland and Ireland, and in the west of England, descend- 

 ing as far south as Shropshire and South Wales. Fl. summer. [The 

 leaves are formed of two tubes placed side by side, the flowering stem 

 of one tube.] 



2. L. urens, Linn. (fig. 613). Acrid L. — Rootstock perennial, shortly 

 creeping, with obovate or oblong radical leaves. Stems simple or 

 slightly branched, erect, 1 to 1J feet high, bearing in the lower half 

 lanceolate, slightly toothed leaves, and in the upper part a long slender 

 raceme of erect, purplish-blue flowers, about the size of those of Z. 

 Dortmanna. 



In moist heaths, in western Europe, from Andalusia to western and 

 central France. In Britain, only in Dorsetshire and Cornwall. Fl. end 

 of summer and autumn. 



II. JASIONE. JASIONE. 



Flowers blue, in small, terminal, hemispherical heads, surrounded by 

 an involucre of several bracts. Calyx reduced to 5 very narrow, slender 

 lobes. Corolla regular, deeply divided into 5 narrow segments. Anthers 

 united at the base into a ring round the long club-shaped style. 



Besides our British species, the genus contains 2 or 3 allied peren- 

 nials, chiefly from the mountains of central southern Europe and 

 western Asia. The flower-heads of this genus show the nearest approach 

 to Composite, from which the many-seeded capsules at once distin- 

 guish it. 



