Stems.—Low, spreading. Leaves.—Opposite, ovate, set close to the stem. Flowers.—Red, occasionally blue or white, growing singly from the axils of the leaves. Calyx.—Five-parted. Corolla.—Five-parted, wheel-shaped. Stamens.—Five, with bearded filaments. Pistil.—One.
This flower is found in sandy fields, being noted for its sensitiveness to the weather. It folds its petals at the approach of rain, and fails to open at all on a wet or cloudy day. Even in fine weather it closes in the early afternoon and “sleeps” till the next morning. Its ripened seeds are of value as food for many songbirds. It was thought at one time to be serviceable in liver complaints, which reputed virtue may have given rise to the old couplet:
No ear hath heard, no tongue can tell
The virtues of the pimpernel.
Cardinal-flower.
Lobelia cardinalis. Lobelia Family.
Stem.—From two to four feet high. Leaves.—Alternate, narrowly oblong, slightly toothed. Flowers.—Bright red, growing in a raceme. Calyx.—Five-cleft. Corolla.—Somewhat two-lipped, the upper lip of two rather erect lobes, the lower spreading and three-cleft. Stamens.—Five, united into a tube. Pistil.—One, with a fringed stigma.
We have no flower which can vie with this in vivid coloring. In late summer its brilliant red gleams from the marshes or is reflected from the shadowy water’s edge with unequalled intensity——
As if some wounded eagle’s breast
Slow throbbing o’er the plain,
Had left its airy path impressed