210 Lobelia siphititica. 
apt to fade white, without great care, in drying for the herbarium. 
This elegant plant displays its flowers in August and September, 
and is a very common inhabitant of meadows, the margins of rivers 
and small waters, and the borders of watery thickets. 
MEDICINAL PROPERTIES. 
Lobelia siphilitica is a lactescent, acrid, and rank-smelling plant, 
particularly the root, which alone, seems to be useful for medicinal 
purposes. It has found its way into the works on Materia Medica, 
by its reputed efficacy in curing siphilis among the Indians of this 
country. The use of the plant with this view, was long preserved as 
an important secret among them, until it was purchased by sir Wil- 
liam Johnson, who made it known to Europeans, and since then it 
has been repeatedly tried under every favourable circumstance by 
physicians of eminence,* and the result has been, that its reputed 
antisiphilitic powers are no longer credited. Indeed, it seems 
probable, that the Indians themselves did not trust in the cure of 
true siphilis to this herb, but used, in conjunction with it, the bark of 
Wild cherry, (Prunus Virginiana) the root of May-apple, (Podophyl- 
* Desbois de Rochefort and others have administered this root in Siphilis without 
the least success: and Pearson, in his work on the effects of various articles in the cure 
of siphilis, corroborates the worthlessness of the herb in that disease. Ihave myself 
used it in more than five or six cases, without perceiving the slightest benefit. 
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