NAT. ORDER. 



Labiatee. 



SCUTELLARIA LATERIFLORA. BLUE SCULLCAP. 



Class XIV. DiDYNAMiA. Older I. Gymnospermia. 



(len. Char. Stalks, branched, smooth. Leaves, on long petiole- 

 ovate, dentate, sometimes cordate, membranaceous. Racems, 

 lateral leafy. 



Spe. Char. Upper lip of the calyx covering the fruit like an oper- 

 culum. 



The roots are perennial, fibrous and yellow ; the stem, is erect, 

 square, and rises from one to three feet in height; the branches are 

 similar to Lobelia Inflata, the lower branches being the longest, but 

 none of them reaching above the top of the stem ; the leaves are 

 ovate, dentate, acute, subcordate upon the stem, opposite, and sup- 

 ported upon long petioles ; the flowers are small, of a pale blue 

 color, and are placed on the branches which contain several small 

 nracts or leaves ; the calyx has an entire margin, which, after the 

 corolla has fallen, is closed in with a helmet-shaped lid ; the tube 

 of the corolla is elongated, the upper lip concave and entire, the 

 lower three-lobed ; the seed-vessels are of a light green color, and 

 somewhat in the shape of a hood — they open laterally by a valve, 

 each one containing four seeds. 



ScuUcap has of late become quite celebrated for the cure of 

 hydrophobia. Rafinesque says : " This property was first dis- 

 covered by Dr. Vandervere, about 1772, who used it with the 

 utmost success, and until 1815, when he died : he is said to have 

 prevented four hundred persons, and more than one thousand cattle, 

 from becoming hydrophobic, after they were bitten by rabid ani- 



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