LOBELIA CAVAMLLESIL— CAVANILLE’S LOBELIA. 
Class V. PENTANDRIA. Order I. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order, LOBELIACEH2. 
Calyx 5-lobed ; tube obconical, ovoid or hemispherical. Corolla split longitudinally above, bilabiate, the 
tube cylindrical or funnel-shaped, straight; the upper lip generally smaller and erect, the lower generally 
spreading broader, 3-cleft or rarely 3-toothed. Anthers, the two lower, or rarely the whole, bearded at the 
top. Ovarium inferior, or half superior, or (even in species much allied) nearly free. 
Stem, (4 feet high) erect, but slender and lax, glabrous, of deep red-purple, marked by prominent 
scars where the leaves had fallen, branched below, hardly above, somewhat woody. Leaves (3-4 \ inches 
long) narrow lanceolate, acutely serrulate, spreading wide, glabrous, darker above than below, where the 
strong middle rib and reticulated veins are very prominent. Peduncles axillary, solitary, filiform, wiry, 
glabrous, purple, about as long as the leaves, ebracteate, spreading wide, or having a segmoid flexure out- 
wards. Calyx green, purplish along the ribs, undulate, glabrous, 5-cleft, segments ovato-linear, as long as 
the tube which is campanulate. Corolla glabrous, bilabiate, inserted into the throat of the calyx, cleft along 
the whole of its upper side, where it is red, but yellow below and within ; segments of the upper lip linear, 
acute, erect and twisted ; lower lip oblong, slightly deflected, 3-dentate. Stamens scarcely shorter than the 
corolla; filaments at first yellow, afterwards reddish, inserted into the calyx at the base of the corolla, to 
which they adhere at their origin, monadelphous ; anthers coherent along their whole extent, red on the 
outside before the corolla opens, afterwards leaden coloured, densely covered with long white hairs which 
arise from the lines between them, yellow on the inside and yielding yellow pollen. Pistil rather shorter 
than the stamens ; style yellow, glabrous ; stigma of two short blunt lobes, each, having a tuft of hairs as 
its base; germen half superior, conical at its apex, bilocular, placentae central, and covered with many small 
ovules. 
The genus Lobelia, though much reduced, may still require reform. Lobelia Cavanillesii, is among 
those in which a diversity of habit makes it desirable that a good technical character could be formed by 
which to separate them. They are in cultivation in this country as species of Siphocampylus, but with that 
genus, they neither agree in character nor habit. Decandolle considers tab. 139, Lobelia laxiflora of Hum- 
boldt and Kunth, and this, to be merely varieties of the same. The much smaller growth of this and the 
character which I have drawn of it, may, perhaps, keep them specifically distinct. In cultivation I have 
not seen them to vary so much as Decandolle thinks they do, but enough to make me little confident in 
this opinion. I believe they are both natives of Mexico. 
Lobelia Cavanillesii w'as first described in this country by Sir W. J. Hooker in 1837, with a statement 
that it was imported into the Botanic Garden, Glasgow, from Professor Lehmann of Hamburgh. It was 
received at the Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, from Mr. Rollison, in 1838, is now frequent in collections ; its 
elegance and beauty entitle it to general cultivation. It is probable that Mr. Cameron’s observations re- 
garding the culture of Siphocampylus bicolor, may in some degree be applicable to this plant. 
Derivation of the name. Lobelia in honour of Lobel, physician to James the VI. of Scotland. 
Flowers, yes — Flowers again! It is the season of their approach; therefore make ready for their coming, 
and listen to the author of the “Flora Domestica,” who is eloquent in praise of their eloquence. She tells 
us that 
Ovid is so fond of flowers, that, in the account of the Rape of Proserpine in his Fasti, he devotes 
several lines to the enumeration of the flowers gathered by her attendants. Mr. Gibbon is very angry with 
him for it. “ Can it be believed,” says he, “that the Rape of Proserpine should be described in two verses, 
when the enumeration of the flowers which she gathered in the garden of Eden had just filled sixteen ?” 
But surely this loitering of the poet, over his meadows and crocuses, conveys a fit sense of the pleasure 
