Curtis's Botanical Magazine/Volume 58/3075
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Lobelia hypocrateriformis. Salver-shaped Lobelia.
❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈
Class and Order.
Pentandria Mongynia.
(Nat. Ord.—Lobeliaceæ.)
Generic Character.
Cor. tubo hinc fisso (raro integro); limbo 5-partito. Antheræ connate. Stigma bilobum, (nunc indivsum.) Capsula bilocularis, (raro 3-locularis,) apice supero bivalvi. Br.
Div. Isotoma. Br. Cor. hypocrateriformis, tubo integro, limbo parum inæquali. Antheræ imberbes (2 inferiores mucronatæ.) Flores racemosi.
Specific Character and Synonyms.
Descr. A slender, scarcely branched, annual plant. Stems erect, glabrous, asis every part, wavy, rounded. Leaves scattered, remote, linear-filiform, from half to three quarters of an inch long, spreading, or often recurved, obtuse, entire, pale green, gradually becoming smaller upwards, and passing in bracteæ. Raceme terminal, few-flowered. Pedicals slender, wavy, much longer than the linear bracteæ. Calyx superior, of five linear-subulate, closely packed teeth. Corolla truly hypocrateriform; the tube slender twice or thrice as long as the calyx, entire, almost white: the limb five-partite, somewhat two-lipped, the segments broadly obovato-cuneate, submucronate,
purple, with a small red spot at the base, the two upper ones rather the smallest, approximate, as are the three lower, of which the middle segment is the largest of all. Filaments white. Anthers oblong, bluish-purple. Germen obovate, furrowed, glabrous: Style a little exceeding the stamens: Stigma two-lobed.
This interesting little plant is a native of the Southern shores of New Holland, where it was discovered by Mr. Brown, and described by that learned author as the type of division of Lobelia which he calls Isotoma. Seeds were sent to the Glasgow Botanic Garden, by Mr. C. Fraser, and the plants blossomed in the greenhouse during the month of September, 1830.
We possess native specimens, gathered at King George's Sound, which are larger than the plant here figured.
Fig. 1. Flower. 2. Anthers and Stigma:–magnified.