Canby's Lobelia

Lobelia canbyi A. Gray, Man. ed. 5. 284. 1867
Dorltnannia Canbyi Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 972. 1891.
Stem erect, tall and slender, mostly 1.5-3.5 mm. in diameter at base, unbranched or with few-several short racemose branches (sometimes much-branched), 30-100 cm. high, glabrous or sparsely pubescent and reddish below, becoming glabrous and deep green above; leaves cauline, 20-40, linear or narrowly lanceolate, 0.05-0.4 cm. wide by 0.9-5 cm. long, often closely appressed, giving the plant a very slender appearance, the blades rather thin, nearly glabrous, obscurely callose-denticulate, but subentire in outline, the upper often merging gradually into the bracts of the raceme; roots fibrous; inflorescence 10-30 cm. long, never prominently secund, (10-) 15-20(30-) flowered; branches, if present, bearing 2-10 flowers each; pedicels somewhat angular, 7-1 1 mm. long in fruit, more or less upright, usually minutely upwardly-barbed, each with a pair of inconspicuous bracteoles near the base; flower-bracts linear, about as long as the pedicels, or longer, up to 10-20 mm. long, glabrous or ciliate, callosedenticulate; flower 9-14 mm. long, including hypanthium (averaging 11-12 mm.); corolla purplish-blue, glabrous without, the lower lip pubescent at base within, the tube 3.5-4 mm. long, entire except for the dorsal fissiu-e, the lobes of the lower lip ovate, slightly shorter than the tube, the two upper lobes lanceolate, about the same length; filament-tube about 3.5 mm. long (3-4 mm), nearly glabrous, the filaments connate more than half their length; anthertube 1.9-2. 1 mm. long, light bluish-gray, the two smaller anthers tufted, the three larger nearly glabrous or pubescent on the backs; hypanthium in anthesis long-campanulate, rough-puberulent, becoming oval or oblong-oval in fruit, 2.5-4 mm. wide by 4-7 mm. long; capsule more or less upright, about three-foiu-ths inferior; calyx-lobes narrowly lance-linear, acute, 2.5-6 mm. long, obscurely callose-denticulate, glabrous or somewhat ciHate; auricles none; seeds oblong, 0.5-0.7 mm. long.
Type locality: Pine barrens of New Jersey (Quaker Bridge), Canby (Gray!). DisTRmuTiON: Central Tennessee and central North Carolina; Coastal Plain from Georgia to New Jersey.