N. ORD.-LOBELIACEA:. 99 
Tribe.—LOBELIEA. 
GENUS.—LOBELIA, LINN. 
SEX, SYST.—PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
LOBELIA INFLATA. 
INDIAN TOBACCO. 
SYN.—LOBELIA INFLATA, LINN.; RAPUNTIUM INFLATUM, MILL. 
COM. NAMES.—WILD OR INDIAN TOBACCO, EYE-BRIGHT,* BLADDER 
POD,| EMETIC ROOT OR WEED, PUKE WEED, ASTHMA WEED; (FR.) 
. LOBELIE ENFLEE; (GER.) LOBELIE. 
A TINCTURE OF THE WHOLE FRESH HERB LOBELIA INFLATA, L. 
Description.—This well-known milky, acrid, biennial or annual herb, varies 
greatly in its growth, generally, however, its height is from 8 inches to 2 feet.} 
Root slender, yellowish-white; sem erect, somewhat angled, lined or winged, 
leafy, paniculately branched, especially above, and divergently hirsute, principally 
below; deaves sessile, veiny, acute, and irregularly or obtusely toothed; they vary 
from ovate or oblong below to foliaceous or even subulate bracts above, longer 
than the pedicels. florescence loose, terminal, spike-like racemes; flowers small, 
inconspicuous, irregular. Calyx persistent 10-veined, not auriculate nor append- 
aged in the sinuses; /odes linear-subulate, nearly as long as the corolla, and spring- 
ing from a decided ring involving the throat of the tube. Corol/a marcescent, 
about two lines lang, pale blue externally, somewhat violet within ; Zodes 5, the two 
upper lanceolate, erect, the three lower ovate, acute, and projecting. Stamens 5, 
epigynous, projecting with the style (which they enclose) through the complete 
slit in the upper median line of the corolla tube. Capsule 2-celled, oval, glabrous, 
much inflated, longitudinally 10-nerved and roughened between the nerves by 
transverse rugz, they greatly exceed their pedicels in length; seeds numerous, 
oblong, rough, of a brilliant brown color and reticulated with honey-yellow inter- 
mixed lines; J/acente central. A description of the genus is incorporated in that 
of Lobelia Cardinalis, 97. 
History and Habitat—Indian Tobacco is common in dry open fields from 
Hudson’s Bay westward to Saskatchewan and southward to Georgia and the 
Mississippi, where it flowers from July to October. Linnzus first noticed this 
* The true eye-bright is Euphrasia officinalis, L. (Scrophulariacea). 
¢ The true bladder-pod is Vestcaria Shortit, 7. & G. (Cruciferee). 
{ I met many individuals this season (1885), scarcely 3 inches high, simple stemmed, and in full flower and fruit. 
I judge this depauperate form to be the var. simplex of Rafinesque. 
