4. L. amœ̀na, Michx. Glabrous or nearly so; raceme virgate; leaves narrower; bracts lanceolate or linear, often glandular-denticulate; calyx-lobes long and very slender, usually without auricles, the tube glabrous.—S. Atlantic States, in swamps.—Var. glandulífera, Gray; a slender form with secund raceme, oval to lance-oblong obtuse gland-toothed leaves, and the bracts and calyx-teeth beset with slender gland-tipped teeth. S. Va. and southward.
[++][++] Leaves long and narrow, sparse above; lip of corolla pubescent at base.
5. L. glandulòsa, Walt. Glabrous, or sparingly pubescent; leaves, bracts, and usually the lobes of the calyx, strongly glandular-toothed; calyx-tube densely hispid, rarely sparsely so or smoothish, the sinuses not auriculate.—Pine-barren swamps, S. Va. to Fla.
[+][+] Flowers smaller (corolla-tube not more than 2–3´´ long).
[++] Stem leafy, mostly simple, continued into an elongated virgate spike-like raceme; leaves lanceolate to obovate, barely denticulate or repand.
6. L. leptóstachys, A. DC. Smooth above; leaves obtuse, denticulate, oblong-lanceolate, the upper gradually reduced to awl-shaped bracts; calyx-lobes nearly equalling the corolla, with 10 reflexed awl-shaped appendages as long as the hemispherical tube.—Sandy soil, Ohio to Ill. and Mo.; also Va. to Ga.
7. L. spicàta, Lam. Stem slender, strict (1–4° high) from a biennial (?) root, below and the barely denticulate leaves minutely pubescent; lower and root-leaves obovate or spatulate, the upper reduced to linear or club-shaped bracts; calyx-tube short, obconical or becoming almost hemispherical, sinuses not appendaged.—Moist or dry, mostly gravelly or sandy soil, N. New Eng. to Sask., south to Ark. and La. Fl. through summer.—Var. parviflòra, Gray, a small form, with calyx-lobes broadly subulate, and pale corolla but 3´´ long. Swamps, Lancaster, Penn. (Porter); beginning to flower in June.—Var. hirtélla, Gray; with somewhat scabrous pubescence, and minutely hirsute-ciliate bracts and calyx-lobes. Chiefly toward and beyond the Mississippi.
[++][++] Stem leafy, often paniculately branched; flowers loosely racemose; sinuses of calyx not appendaged; annual or biennial.
[=] Leaves chiefly linear, entire or denticulate; pod not inflated.
8. L. Cánbyi, Gray. Stem strict (1–2° high), minutely angled; pedicels shorter than the bracts and flowers, minutely roughened under a lens; bractlets none; calyx-tube top-shaped, acute at base, only half the length of the lobes (which, with the linear leaves, are sparsely glandular-denticulate), in fruit becoming oblong, covering the whole pod; corolla deep blue (fully 5´´ long), more or less bearded in the throat.—Wet places, N. J., Del., and S. C.