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Descriptive Flora 



the angles and bright blue, star-shaped flowers, % to 1 inch 

 across, blossoming in the axils of the uppermost leaves. Upper 

 stem leaves simple, alternate. Blades 1 to long, usually 

 narrowly lanceolate. Lower leaf-blades oblong or spatulate. 

 Petals 5, joined at base and crowning a narrow, 3-sided tube, 

 1 to % inch long. Fruit oblong, prismatic, about 1 inch long, 

 solitary and sessile in the axils of the leaves, the 3 faces deeply 

 grooved, and crowned by 5 calyx lobes. Widespread. April and 

 May. Flowers are larger than Specularia perfoliata, leaves 

 longer and narrower, and fruits longer. 



Specularia bifora (R. & P.) A. Gray. 



Similar to the above species of Specularia but stems are 

 minuately retorsely hispid (use glass), leaf blades sessile, longer 

 than broad, and the valves of the capsule are at the top instead 

 of near the middle. April to June. Widespread. 



LOBELIACEAE. Lobelia Family. 



Lobelia splendens Willd. Cardinal Flower. 



Erect, very leafy plants, the upper part of the stems radiant 

 with scarlet flowers. Leaves simple, alternate. Blades oblong 

 lanceolate, finely toothed, with enlarged and thickened midrib at 

 the base, and exuding milk when broken. Corolla tubular, split 

 on the upper side, about 1 inch long, 5-lobed, the upper 2 lobes 

 narrow, the lower 3 united and wider than the upper. Stamens 

 united into a grey hook at their tips. As the flower matures, 

 the inclosed stigma breaks through the hair-fringed tip of the 

 hook and splits, forming two rounded hairy lobes. Pod 2-celled, 

 containing many tiny seeds. Rare. The writer has seen three 

 specimens in five years of field work. Summer and fall. Named 

 for de L 'Obel, a Flemish botanist. 



