larity in the corolla, as sufficient distinguishing characters, especially as these are accompanied by other differences which appear to me important. In Goodenoviæ I have not included Lobelia, which, however, has also an irregular corolla, and although it wants the peculiar indusium of the stigma, has in its place a fasciculus or pencil of hair surrounding that organ. This structure has been regarded by Jussieu and Richard, in a very learned memoir, more recently written on the subject,[1] as analogous to the indusium of Goodenoviæ, to which they have therefore added Lobelia and derived the name of the order from this, its most extensive and best known genus. To the opinion of these authors I hesitate to accede, chiefly for the following reasons:
1st. In Goodenoviæ the deeper fissure of the tube of the corolla exists on its inner or upper side, a circumstance readily determined in those species having single spikes. In Lobelia, on the other hand, the corresponding fissure is on the outer or lower side, a fact, however, which can only be ascertained before the opening of the corolla, the flowers in the greater number of species becoming resupinate in the expanded state, a circumstance that does not appear to have been before remarked. The relation therefore not only of the corolla but of the calyx and stamina to the axis of inflorescence, is different in these two tribes.
560] 2ndly. In Goodenoviæ the greater part of the tube of the corolla is formed by the cohesion of five laciniæ, the distinct inflected margins of which are in most cases visible nearly to its base; these laciniæ are in some cases unconnected, as in Diaspasis, and more remarkably still in Cyphia, which is actually pentapetalous. I have observed no such structure in Lobelia.
3rdly. At the period of bursting of the antheræ the stigma in Lobelia is almost completely evolved, and capable of receiving impregnation from the pollen of the same flower; the function therefore of its surrounding pencil, is similar to that of the hairs which are almost equally obvious
- ↑ Annales du mus. 18, p. 1.
