Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/441

Lobelia.]

Herbs of various habit. Leaves alternate, entire or toothed or pinnatifid. Flowers axillary or in terminal racemes. Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary; limb 5-parcite. Corolla-tube cylindrical, entire or very shortly slit on the upper side; limb spreading, with 5 nearly equal lobes. Stamens inserted about the middle of the corolla-tube; filaments connate above; anthers similar to those of Lobelia, the 2 lower ones tipped with one or several short bristles, the 3 upper naked. Ovary 2-celled; ovules numerous; stigma shortly 2-lobed. Capsule 2-celled, loculicidally 2-valved within the calyx-lobes. Seeds numerous.

1. I. fluviatilis, F. Muell ex Benth. Fl. Austral. iv. 136.—A small slender creeping and rooting perennial herb, often forming matted patches, glabrous or slightly pubescent; stems 1–4 in. long. Leaves shortly petiolate, ¼–⅓ in. long, oblong or obovate-oblong to linear-oblong, obtuse or subacute, entire or sinuate-dentate, rather thin and membranous. Peduncles axillary, 1-flowered, longer than the leaves. Flowers pale-blue, ¼–⅓ in. long. Calyx-lobes subulate-lanceolate. Corolla-tube not split at the back, longer than the calyx-lobes; lobes linear-oblong, spreading. Stamens attached to the corolla-tube about the middle; the 2 lower anthers each tipped with a rigid bristle. Capsule oblong, ⅕ in. long. Seeds smooth.—Lobelia fluviatilis, ''R. Br. Prodr. 563; Hook. f. Fl. Tasm.'' i. 238, t. 70.

Annual or perennial herbs. Leaves alternate or rarely opposite. Peduncles terminal or axillary, often forming leafy panicles.