Lobelia inflata, — | 488 
Scevola of Linneus. When this botanist was convinced by Jacquin, 
that under the name of Lobelia, a vast number of plants generically 
distinct from the original plant, were confounded with it, and 
that these plants were better known than the true Lobelia, by 
that name 3; he judged it proper to correct the error by retain- 
ing this name for them, and giving a new one to the genus of 
Plumier. This is the origin of the term Lobelia for the genus as it 
now stands. 
The Lobelia inflata is a biennial inelegant plant, about one foot, 
and from that to two feet high. The root is fibrous, yellowish-white, 
ofan acrid taste, resembling that of tobacco. Stem upright, always 
solitary, angular, leafy, very pubescent, sometimes hirsute, and 
very much branched about mid way. Branches axillary, shorter than 
the stem, which rises for six or ten inches above the top of the 
highest branches, as} ‘epresent d by fig. 2. The leaves are irregu-— 
Jarly scattered and. alternate, sometimes crowded, oval, generally 
sessile, with the margins unequally indented with tooth-like serra- 
ae tures. The flowers are numerous, situated on terminal, leafy ra- 
cemes, and supported on short axillary peduncles. The corolla is 
‘monopetalous and labiate ; the lower lip three, and the upper two- 
toothed, is of a pale blue colour externally, and delicate violet within. 
The calix leaves are awl-shaped, and the length of the corolla. 
Seeds numerous, very small, and contained in egg-shaped inflated 
- capsules, which have given rise to the specific appellation of the 
