C 1325 ] 



Lobelia gigantea. Gigantic Lobelia, 



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Clafs and Order, 



Pentandria Monogynia. 



(Syngenesia Monogamia. Linn. Mon adelpiiia Pen- 

 tan dri a. Perfoon.) 



Generic Character. 



CaL 5-fidus. Cor. l-petala, irregularis, faepius fiffa. St am. 

 connata in tubum. Cap/, infera 2 — 3-locularis. 



Specific Character and Synonyms. 



LOBELIA gigantea; caule fruticofo, foiiis lanceolatis feffili- 

 bus ferrulatis, floribus axillaribus foiitariis folio 

 brevioribus. 



LOBELIA Titpa. Hort. Kew. ed. nov. 1. p. 357. et Herb. 

 Bank/, vix Linnet. 



Descr. Stem fhrubby, fourteen or fixteen feet high, 

 rounded, branched. Branches drooping, pithy, bearing a fo- 

 litary fiower in the axil of each leaf towards the extremity. 

 Leaves alternate, fefiile, lanceolate, minutely fawed, feven or 

 eight inches long on the main fiem, fmooth, reticulated under- 

 neath. Floral leaves exactly like the reft, except in fize, 

 green, twice as long as the flower. Peduncle green, an inch 

 long, with two fmall oppofite fubulate braftes. Calyx green, 

 nearly hemifpherical cup-fhaped, torulofe ; with five lanceo- 

 late, acute, ereB, nearly equal, diftant teeth. Corolla tubular, 

 recurved, fplitting at the back, nearly the whole length, 

 and dividing upwards into three or five petals, which, 

 however, remain attached at their points; colour yellow at 

 firft, then orange, and going off a blood red. Filaments con- 

 necled into a cylindrical tube, paffing out at the fiffure in the 

 back of the flower: Anthers united, ftriped, brown, hairy. 

 Qermen conical, two-celled, detached from the calyx except 

 towards the bafe : Stigma bifid, revolute, exferted. 



This has been fuppofed to be Lobelia Tupa of Lik'n-jeus, 

 a plant fo virulent, that Feu il lee fays only fmelling to the 

 flowers will prove violently emetic, and that if after handling 

 the olant the fingers, fmeared with any of the milky juice, 

 lhould be accidentally rubbed on the eyes, the fight would be 

 infallibly deftroyed, as has been found by experience. That 



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