, pedicelled --5.

4b. Flowers in slender terminal spike-like racemes, nearly sessile
(4-10 dm. high, usually unbranched)
=Lobelia, Lobelia spicata.=

5a. Foliage pubescent (3-8 dm. high)
=Indian Tobacco, Lobelia inflata.=

5b. Foliage glabrous (1-4 dm. high) =Lobelia, Lobelia kalmii.=

COMPOSITAE, the Composite Family

Herbs, with various types of foliage, but with flowers of characteristic
structure, resembling a sunflower, a thistle, or a dandelion. Each
apparent flower is a head of numerous small flowers, attached side by
side to the expanded end of the stem, and subtended and partly enclosed
by a series of bracts, called the involucre, which resembles a calyx.

The calyx of the individual flower is minute or actually wanting, and is
usually modified to aid in seed dispersal. It appears at the base of the
corolla, at the summit of the inferior ovary, and is known as pappus.
The structure of the pappus is best observed in the ripe fruit.

The corolla of the individual flowers consists of 5 (or rarely 4) united
petals. In some flowers the petals are united to form a tubular or
bell-shape corolla. In others they are united to form a flat or
strap-shape corolla. The stamens are attached to the corolla, and are
united by their anthers into a tube which surrounds the style, and above
which the 2-lobed stigma protrudes.

The apparent flower of a Composite, composed of several or many
individual flowers, is termed a head. It may be composed entirely of
tubular flowers, as the thistle or bone-set; or entirely of strap-shape
flowers, as the dandelion; or of both sorts together, as the aster or
sunflower. In the latter case, the tubular flowers invariably occupy the
center of the head, called the disk, and the larger strap-shape flowers
are at the margin, where their projecting corollas, called rays, may be
very conspicuous. Such heads are called radiate.

In a few composites (see 1a below) the flowers have minute corollas
without colored parts.

In identifying a composite, determine first whether the heads are
composed of tubular flowers, of strap-shape flowers, or of both sorts
together; and, secondly, observe the nature of the pappus, using
preferably the ripe heads, or at least the oldest flower-heads
available. No further difficulties will be encountered.

1a. Flowers without petal-like or brightl