ON THE GENUS LOBELIA: 
155 
every branch teeming- with their modest blossoms, as it were in token of a desire to 
excel each other. Some have recommended to place'these plants in a warm situa- 
tion in the open air against a south wall, but no place can be so well adapted for 
them as an airy g-reenhouse, particularly when we consider their liability to be cut 
off by autumnal winds and early frosts. 
ON THE GENUS LOBELIA. 
This genus comprises many of our choicest ornamental plants ; some requiring* 
the stove, others the greenhouse, and a part do best with the protection of frames. 
Scarcely any will bear exposure during the frost in winter, although many of them 
decorate so beautifully our flower-gardens in the summer. The species are natives 
of the countries within or upon the borders of the tropics ; principally ranging in 
the West Indies, Brazil, the Cape of Good Hope, the Sandwich Islands, and a few 
are found in Chili and New Holland, They are, for the most part, evergreen 
herbaceous perennial plants ; a portion are deciduous, a few annual, and a very small 
portion are shrubby. 
To give the reader a general idea of the plants brought under this genus, we 
shall, in treating of it, arrange the species under the heads evergreen herbaceous 
perennial, deciduous herbaceous perennial, and annual ; blending the whole with such 
remarks as shall appear to us requisite to furnish a fair table of observations, 
embracing the culture, propagation, time of flowering, colour of the flower, with 
brief hints on the merits, &c. &c. 
EVERGREEN HERBACEOUS PERENNIALS. 
L. macrantha. 
L. secuiida. 
— Simsii. 
— minima. 
— pedunculata. 
— illicifolia. 
— dentata. 
— hirsuta. 
— nicotiansBfolia. 
— erinoides. 
— pinifolia. 
— coronopifolia. 
— umbellata. 
— triquetra. 
— alata. 
— tomentosa. 
— assurgens. 
— minuta. 
— Zeylanica. 
— erinus. 
— pyramidalis. 
— simplex. 
— linearis. 
— pubescens. 
— bellidifolia. 
— Thunbergii. 
— rhizophyta. 
— caerulea. 
— decumbens. 
All the above species, except eight, produce blue flowers ; the rhizophyta^ 
secunda, minima, and minuta, have white flowers ; the assurgens, scarlet ; pyrami- 
dalis, purple ; and bellidifolia, pink ; the others, as before stated, are blue. Their 
season of flowering generally commences about the middle of May, or between that 
and the early part of June ; in which state they continue till late in the autumn, 
while the more free-flowering ones remain till the frost forbids their longer stay. 
