Laurentia
(named after M. A. Laurenti, an Italian botanist of the seventeenth century). SYN. Solenopsis. ORD. Campanulaceae. A genus comprising about ten species of delicate or small greenhouse herbaceous plants, inhabiting the Mediterranean region, South Africa, and North-west America. Flowers bluish, small. Plant sometimes creeping, with filiform branches, or else erect or ascendent, with narrow alternate leaves, and axillary one-flowered or terminal racemose peduncles; sometimes almost stemless, with radical, rosulate leaves, and one-flowered scapes. Several of the species are often erroneously classed under Lobelia (which see for culture of those described below). L. erinoides (Erinus-like). fl. from the axils of the upper leaves corolla purplish-white, marked with deep purple and two yellow spots, with a campanulate tube and a five-lobed limb. July and August. l. glabrous, mostly petiolate; those from the root, and lower stem ones, spathulate; upper ones linear, entire. Cape of Good Hope, 1759. Plant stemless. (B. M. 3609, under name of Lobelia erinoides.) L. minuta (minute). fl. pale purplish; scapes ebracteate, erect. June to September. l. all radical, ovate. Cape of Good Hope. Plant tufted, stemless. (B. M. 2590, under name of Lobelia minuta.)