LOBELIA FAMILY. 



481 



Beds of vernal pools (where water has recently stood), on the 

 plains of the Sacramento Valley. May. Lower lip somewhat 

 concave. 



2. B. concolor Greene. Branched from the base and somewhat 

 tufted or nearly simple, 4 to 5 in. high, minutely puberulent; corolla 

 light blue; base of lower lip or all of it below the lobes or divided 

 part with a well-defined spot or area of dark maroon; upper lip cleft 

 to the middle only; lobes of lower lip slightly unequal; stamen- 

 column little exserted. 



Low fields near Suisun. May-June. 



Var. tricolor (B. tricolor Greene). Lower lip with the transverse 

 somewhat quadrate spot of dark maroon bordered by white, this color 

 sometimes extending to the bases of the violet lobes; throat often 

 with yellow folds. Varying into the next. 



3. B. pulchella (Lindl.) Greene. Erect or ascending, 2 to 10 

 in. high, usually simple; leaves oblong-ovate or narrower, \ in. long; 

 lower lip of corolla cleft into 3 roundish apiculate lobes; upper lip 

 deeply 2-cleft, the oblong-lanceolate lobes divergent and spreading; 

 corolla deep blue, the center of the lower lip yellow with a white 

 border, this somewhat irregular in outline but sharply defined 

 against the violet; side of throat next to the lower lip with three 

 dark violet spots either side of and in the interval between a pair of 

 narrow yellow folds or lines which join the yellow field; corolla-tube 

 1 line long, the limb ample, 6 lines broad and 4 lines deep, the lower 

 lip plane and at a right angle to the tube; stamen-column nearly or 

 quite equaling the lobes of the upper lip. — (Downingia pulchella 

 Torr. ) 



The most common and most beautiful species: plains of the Lower 

 Sacramento in Solano Co.; abundant and of rank growth in salt 

 marshes near Alvarado; low places in fields between Gilroy and 

 San Felipe. May-June. 



4. B. cuspidata Greene. Stems very slender and leaves scarcely 

 exceeding 1 line; flowers few; lower lip of the corolla broadly trefoil- 

 shaped, broader than long; lobes broadly ovate, retuse or somewhat 

 obcordate, cuspidately pointed, the terminal half violet, the lower 

 portion white; undivided part of lower lip yellow, plane or nearly 

 so, that is, without protuberances or folds; lobes of the upper lip 1| 

 lines long, spatulate-obovate, cuspidately acute, slightly divergent, 

 deep violet; anther-tube scarcely exserted from the comparatively 

 long (H lines) and narrow corolla-tube. 



North Coast Ranges: Los Guilicos and Napa Valleys. May-June. 



5. B. ornatissima Greene. Erect, slender, 2 to 6 in. high, simple 

 or branched from the base; tube of corolla raised into a protuberance 

 at base of upper lip, the segments of which are coiled backward into 

 a ring; basal portion of lower lip with 4 short folds, the center white 

 with greenish yellow spots, the lobes blue, all the colors very pale; 

 stamen-column exserted beyond the tube. 



Plains of the Lower Sacramento between Elmira and Cannon. 



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