CAMPANULACEJTC." 



507 



2. Acrid Lobelia. Lobelia urens, Linn. (Fig. 605.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 953.) 



Eootstock perennial, shortly creeping, 

 with obovate or oblong radical leaves. 

 Stems simple or slightly branched, erect, 

 1 to 1^ 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 the toater L. 



In moist heaths, in western Europe, 

 from Andalusia to western and central 

 France. In Britain, only on a common 

 near Axminster in Devon, where it has 

 been fast disappearing in consequence of 

 enclosures, and will probably soon have 

 to be expunged from our flora. FL end 

 of sitmmer and autumn. 



Fig. 605. 



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 two or three nearly 

 allied perennials, chiefly from the mountains of central and southern 

 Europe and western Asia. The flower-heads of this genus show the 

 nearest approach to Composites, from which however the many- seeded 

 capsules at once distinguish it. 



1. Sheep's-bit Jasione. Jasione montana, Linn. (Fig. 606.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 882. Sheep s-bit.) 



Root annual or biennial, bearing in the latter case tufts of radical 

 leaves which live through winter. Stems sometimes short and decum- 

 bent or ascending, sometimes nearly erect, a foot high, with a few 



b 2 



