Herbs or shrubs, usually with milky juice. Leaves alternate, seldom opposite, entire or toothed, rarely lobed or dissected; stipules wanting. Flowers hermaphrodite, rarely unisexual, regular or irregular. Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary; limb 4–6- usually 5-lobed. Corolla gamopetalous, epigynous, regular or irregular and split to the base at the back, 4–6-lobed; lobes valvate, often induplicate. Stamens as many as the corolla - lobes and alternate with them, epigynous or more rarely inserted on the tube of the corolla; anthers free or united into a tube. Ovary inferior, rarely semi-superior, 2–5-celled; style single; stigmatic lobes as many, as cells to the ovary; ovules numerous, anatropous, placentas in the inner angles of the cells. Fruit a capsule or berry. Seeds numerous, small; albumen fleshy; embryo straight, axile; radicle next the hilum.

A large order, perhaps most abundant in the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, but extending through the tropics, plentiful in South Africa, and present in fair numbers in other portions of the south temperate zone. Genera 55; species about 1000. As a whole, the order is characterized by the presence of acrid and poisonous qualities, and many of the species are highly dangerous. Few possess any economic importance, but many kinds of Campanula and Lobelia are cultivated in gardens for the beauty of their flowers. Of the New Zealand genera, Lobelia and Wahlenbergia are widely distributed; Pratia, is confined to the south temperate zone; Isotoma is chiefly Australian; while Colensoa is endemic.

Tribe 1. Lobelieie.

Corolla irregular, 2-lipped. Anthers cohering.

Tribe 2. Campanuleæ