Lobelia viridiflora McVaugh

Lobelia viridiflora McVaugh, sp. nov.*
Lobelia ensifolia Hitchc. Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 4: 103, cxcl, syn. 1893. Not Tupa ensifolia A. DC. 18.39.
Stem erect, herbaceous, simple or with few subordinate side branches, coarse (up to 1.5 cm. diam. at base), green, brittle, 1-2 ra. high, glabrous except the inflorescence; cauline leaves 10-50, crowded (on the upper half of the stem sometimes 50 in 20 cm.), spreading-ascending, firm or membranous, smooth and glabrous, finely and evenly crenate or serrate, the blades 1.5-4 cm. broad by 9-29 cm. long (usually 2.5-3 cm. wide by 15-20 cm. long and 6-8 times as long as wide), narrowly linear-elliptic, attenuate at Ixjth ends, the apex acute, the base sometimes narrowed into a distinct short petiole 0.5 cm. long; inflorescence 10-36 cm. long (averaging alxjut 20 cm ), often pedunculate by absence of leaves from the upper 5-10 era. of the stem, Sfiinctimes sccund, closely 20-IOO-flowered (averaging 40-50); pedicels spreading, in flower horizontal or somewhat ascending, but the distal third bent abruptly upward so that the long axis of the flower is nearly vertical, the capsule usually somewhat incurved by further bending
• Lobelia riridiflori, sp. nov., L. salicinae sitnilis, scd foliii luliorihns, linearicllipli.ia, 6-8-plo Ixniciorihii'i <)M.iin lalioritms, lobin calycis 1-2 mm. latis, 3-6 mm. lunitis; lloribuB 30-45 mm. longis; filamcniii 17 21 mm. lotigui; lulio anthcranim 7-8 mm. loiiKo. of the pedicel; pedicels 12-20 mm. long, finelj' short-pubescent, each with a pair of subopposite decurrent green bracteoles near the middle; flower-bracts linear, narrowed at both ends, finely pubescent, decurrent, often fused with pedicel for 1-3 mm. at base, averaging about 2 mm. wide by 20 mm. long, the lowest larger; flower 30-45 mm. long, including hj-panthium; corolla 24-30 (38) mm. long, "greenish-white," "greenish-yellow," "light greenish-yellow," "green, striped with brown," or the "lobes greenish, streaked with brown," finely pubescent without, the tube 10-15 mm. long, nearly straight or slightly curved downward, entire except for the dorsal fissure, the lobes of the lower lip erect or somewhat curved outward, linear-elliptic, subacute, 1-2 mm. wide by 9-13 mm. long, the two upper lobes erect, linear-attenuate, 1 1-15 mm. long; filament-tube 17-21 mm. long, nearly glabrous except at base, the filaments connate except at base; anther-tube 7-8 mm. long, "dark-gray," glabrous, the two smaller anthers whitetufted at tip; hypanthiimi in anthesis short-campanulate or cup-shaped, often unequal-sided, short-pubescent, becoming obliquely cup-shaped in fruit, 7-10 mm. across when pressed, about as broad as high; capsule half inferior or slightly more, 7-10 mm. long; calyx-lobes narrowly deltoid, 1-2 mm. broad at base by 3-6 mm. long, pubescent, entire or with 1-3 teeth on each edge; seeds oval, pitted-reticulate, about 0.7 mm. long.
Type locality: Soho, St. Ann, Jamaica, at an elevation of 1400 ft., Harris 11996 (NY!). Distribution: Central Jamaica.