i180 Lobelia cardinalis. 
and erosely denticulate on the margin. The period of flowering is 
from the last of July till September, during which time it may be 
abundantly found in marshes, low meadows, the borders of rivulets, 
springs, and in watery thickets, in every state in the union. 
MEDICINAL PROPERTIES. 
This. acrid, lactescent plant, is introduced in this work on account of 
its reputed efficacy as an anthelmintic. Little, however, seems to be 
known with certainty, of its powers ; the chief claim it has to notice 
as a medicine, being derived from the circumstance of the Cherokee 
Indians using it successfully to expel worms. The earliest notice of it 
which has met my eye, is. to be found in the valuable little work of 
Schoepf. That writer intimates that it has been used in the same 
manner as the L. siphilitica, in siphilis ; and though this circumstance 
may not add to its medical importance, it evinces an early im- 
pression of the activity of the plant, and of a similarity in its 
virtues, to those of the better known species just alluded to. Dr. 
Drake has enumerated the Cardinal Plant among the anthelmintic 
vegetable productions of Ohio: but he does not say whether he has 
ever used it, or ever seen it employed with a view to such an effect 
onthe system. Of the medicinal powers of this plant, I am not able 
to state any thing from my own experience; but am of opinion that 
its sensible properties, its reputed powers, and the well known ac- 
tivity of the genus.to which it. belongs, fully entitle it to further 
notice. 
