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most active article of the North American Materia Jltfedica is said to be the Lo- 

 belia inflata ; it is possessed of an emetic, sudorific, and powerful expectorant 

 effect, especially the first. When given with a view to empty the stomach, it 

 operates vehemently and speedily ; producing, however, great relaxation, de- 

 bility, and perspiration, and even death, if given in over-doses. Barton, 1. 189. 

 [Bigelow 1. 177.] The anti*yphilitic virtues ascribed to Lobelia syphilitica 

 are supposed to have resided in its diuretic property ; they arc, however, gene- 

 rally discredited altogether. Ibid. 2. 211. Lobelia longiflora, a native of some 

 of the West India Islands, is one of the most venomous of plants. The Spanish 

 Americans call it Rebenta Cavallos, because it proves fatal to horses that eat it, 

 swelling them until they burst . Taken internally, it acts as a violent cathar 

 tic, the effects of which no remedy can assuage, and which end in death. The 

 leaves are an active vesicatory. Lobelia cardinalis is an acrid plant which 

 is reckoned an anthelmintic. Ibid. 2. 180. 

 Examples. Lobelia, Isotoma. 



CLXXVT. GOODENOVIiE. 



Campanula, Juss. Gen. 163. (1789) in part.— Goodenovi-e, K. Brown Prodr. 573, (1810). 



Diagnosis. Monopetalous dicotyledons, with a 2-4-celled inferior ovarium, 

 an indusiate stigma, and indefinite seeds. 



Anomalies. This order offers the singular anomaly of genera having, at 

 the same time, an inferior calyx and a superior corolla ; a circumstance which, 

 it has been well observed by Mr. Brown, points out the real origin of both or- 

 gans. 



Essential Character. — Calyx usually superior, rarely inferior, equal or unequal, in from 

 3 to 5 divisions. Corolla always more or less superior, monopetalous, more or less irregular, 

 withering ; its lube split at the back, and sometimes capable of being separated into 5 pieces, 

 when the calyx only coheres with the base of the ovarium ; its//m6 5-parted, with 1 or 2 lips, 

 the edges of the segments being thinner than the middle, and folded inwards in aestivation. 

 StaTiiens 5, distinct, alternate with the -.annuls of the corolla ; anthers distinct or cohering, 

 2-celled, bursting longitudinally. Pollen simple or compound. Ovarium 2-celled, rarely 

 4-celled, with indefinite ovules, having sometimes a gland at its base between the 2 anterior 

 filaments; style 1, simple, very rarely divided; sti&ma fleshy, undivided, or 2-lobed, sur- 

 rounded by a membranous cup. Fruit a 2- or 4-celled capsule with many seeds, attached 

 to the axis of the dissepiment, which is usually parallel with the valves, rarely oppo- 

 site to them. Seeds usually with a thickened testa, which is sometimes nut-like \ albumen 

 fleshy, enclosing an erect embryo; cotyledons toliaceous ; plumula inconspicuous. Herba- 

 ceous plants, rarely shrubs; without milk, with simple or glandular hairs, if any are present. 

 Leaves scattered, often lobed, without stipula;. Inflorescence terminal, variable, flowers 

 distinct, never capitate, usually yellow, or blue, or pink. 



Affinities. The strict relation of these to Campanulaceae and Lobeliaceae 

 cannot be doubted, from which they differ in the aestivation of the flower, and 

 in the peculiar indusium of the stigma, a trace of which is to be found in Lo- 

 beliacese, and which exists in a remarkable degree in Brunoniaceas. Scaevoleae 

 differ only in their definite seeds. Upon the nature of the indusium of the stig- 

 ma Mr. Brown makes the following observations. 



" Is this remarkable covering of the stigma in these families merely a pro- 

 cess of the apex of the style % or is it a part of distinct origin, though inti- 

 mately cohering with the pistillum 1 On the latter supposition, may it not be 

 considered as analogous to the glandular disk surrounding or crowning the 

 ovarium in many other families ? And, in adoptinc the hypothesis I have for- 



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