Herbs with acrid milky juice, alternate leaves, and scattered flowers, an irregular monopetalous 5-lobed corolla, the 5 stamens free from the corolla, and united into a tube commonly by their filaments and always by their anthers.—Calyx-tube adherent to the many-seeded pod. Style 1; stigma often fringed. Seeds anatropous, with a small straight embryo, in copious albumen.—Nearly passing into the following order.
1. LOBÈLIA, L.
Calyx 5-cleft, with a short tube. Corolla with a straight tube, split down on the (apparently) upper side, somewhat 2-lipped; the upper lip of 2 rather erect lobes, the lower lip spreading and 3-cleft. Two of the anthers in our species bearded at the top. Pod 2-celled, many-seeded, opening at the top.—Flowers axillary or chiefly in bracted racemes, in summer and early autumn. (Dedicated to Matthias De l'Obel, an early Flemish herbalist.)
[*] Flowers deep red, large; stem simple.
1. L. cardinàlis, L. (Cardinal-flower.) Tall (2–4° high), smoothish; leaves oblong-lanceolate, slightly toothed; raceme elongated, rather 1-sided; the pedicels much shorter than the leaf-like bracts.—Low grounds, common.—Perennial by offsets, with large and very showy intensely red flowers, varying rarely to rose-color or even white. Hybrids with the next species also occur.
[*][*] Flowers blue, or blue variegated with white.
[+] Flowers rather large (corolla-tube 5–6´´ long), spicate-racemose; stems leafy, 1–3° high; perennial.
[++] Leaves ovate to lanceolate, numerous; lip of corolla glabrous.
2. L. syphilítica, L. (Great Lobelia.) Somewhat hairy; leaves thin, acute at both ends (2–6´ long), irregularly serrate; flowers (nearly 1´ long) pedicelled, longer than the leafy bracts; calyx hirsute, the sinuses with conspicuous deflexed auricles, the short tube hemispherical.—Low grounds, common.—Flowers light blue, rarely white.
3. L. pubérula, Michx. Finely soft-pubescent; leaves thickish, obtuse (1–2´ long), with small glandular teeth; spike rather 1-sided; bracts ovate; sinuses of the calyx with short and rounded or often inconspicuous auricles, the hairy tube top-shaped.—Moist sandy grounds, N. J. to Iowa, and south to Tex. and Fla.—Corolla bright blue, ½´ long.