/ y f
L 953 ]
LOBELIA urens.
Acrid Lobelia.
PENTANDRIA Monogynia.
G en. C har. Cor. irregular, flit longitudinally on its
upper fide. Stigma capitate. Anther<e united
into a tube. Cap/, inferior, with 2 or 3 cells.
Spec. C har. Stem upright. Lower leaves obovate;
upper ones lanceolate; all toothed. Flowers ra-
cemofe, downy.
Syn. Lobelia urens. Linn. Sp. PI. 1321. Sm. FI.
Brit. 243. Hudf. 378. W ith. 246. Hull. 191.
Curt. Lond.fa/c. 6. t. 63. Dickf. H. Sicc. fa /c. 16.9,
T h i s rare plant was fcarcely known to the generality of
Englifh botanifts, except by Mr. Hudfon’s report, till Mr. Curtis
received it from Lord Webb Seymour, and figured it extremely
well in his Flora. We have been, like him, obliged,
to delineate a garden fpecimen, taken from the choice collection
of James Vere, Efq., Knightfbridge. It has never been
found (in England) out of Devonfhire ; but in addition to the
two fpots already on record we can add Ottery St. Mary, near
which town it was obferved in the autumn of 1800 by Mifs
Burgefs. It is perennial, growing on heaths among fmall
fhrubs, and flowering about September.
Root fibrous, increafing by offsets. Stem about a foot high,
branched, leafy, angular, roughifh, but not hairy. Leaves all
irregularly toothed rather than ferrate, alternate, the loweft
obovate. Flowers in very long, terminal, Ample, brafteated
fpikes or clufters. Calyx of 5 linear rough fpreading leaves,
crowning the furrowed roughifh germen. Corolla of a full
purplifh blue, rough with minute points. Stamina protruding
through the fiflure of the corolla, their filaments in the upper
part, as well as the antherae, united into a tube. Stigma de-
flexed, its head cloven, and, when in perfeftion, gaping, fringed
beneath with fhort hairs. Capfule 2-celled. Seeds numerous,
fmall. Herb milky, foetid and very acrid.