The botanist's repository for new and rare plants; vol. 05 [of 10]

Volume 5 — PLATE CCCXL.

Reading edition

LOBELIA GRACILIS.

Slender-stemed Lobelia.

CLASS XIX. ORDER VI.

SYNGENESIA MONOGAMIA. Tips united. Flowers simple.

ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.

Calyx 5-fidus. Corolla monopetala, irregularis. Capsula infera, 2-seu 3-locularis.

Cup 5-cleft. Blossom one petal, irregular. Capsule beneath, 2 or 3-celled.

See Lobelia pinifolia, Pl. CCLXXIII. Vol. IV.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Lobelia foliis inferioribus ovatis, sinuatis, superioribus lanceolatis, dentatis; petalis duobus minoribus barbatis; floribus spicatis; stigmatibus bifidis.

Lobelia with the lower leaves egg-shaped and scollopped, the upper ones lance-shaped and toothed; the two smaller petals bearded; flowers grow in spikes; summits two-cleft.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. A Blossom cut open, with the chives in their place, magnified. 2. The Cup, Seed-bud, Shaft and Summit; the Summit detached and magnified.

This most delicate little plant, of which our figure represents the whole, was raised in 1801, from Cape seeds, sent by Mr. Niven from thence, for the Clapham gardens; where our drawing was made this year, 1803, in the month of August. It is an annual plant, producing its seeds freely, as do most species of this genus, which should be sown in the month of March, in light sandy peat, and transplanted about May.

Illustration from The botanist's repository for new and rare plants; vol. 05 [of 10]