54 NAT. ORDER. LOBELIACE^. 



present unable to determine, as the plant is but very little known, and 

 probably has never been introduced for culture into this country. 

 The drawing accompanying this description was taken from a 

 plant which flowered in the hot house of Messrs. Grimwood & 

 Co., Kensington, who spared no pains or expense in procuring all 

 the rare and curious exotic plants for culture, and more particu- 

 larly, to promote the cause of botany. It begins to flower in 

 January and February, and continues to blossom during most of 

 the summer months, and is easily increased by cuttings. 



Medical Properties and Uses. — The medicinal properties of this 

 plant, but more particularly the root, are considered invaluable 

 by the Indians of this country. They administer it with astonish- 

 ing success in the treatment of cancers, ulcers, tumors, and syphil- 

 itic affections, of the most virulent kind. Five or six of the 

 plants, including the roots, are boiled in water, and the patient 

 drinks as much as he can of this decoction, in the morning, and 

 during the day. It soon purges, and the strength of the decoction 

 is increased or lessened, as the patient can bear the evacuation. 

 If any part is sore, it is to be washed with this decoction, by which 

 process, in the course of two or three weeks, a perfect cure is 

 effected. Every part of this plant abounds with a milky juice, 

 and has a very disagreeable, rank smell. The root, which is the 

 part preferred in medicine, in taste, resembles tobacco, and 

 sometimes excites vomiting. A handful of it, dried, is boiled in 

 twelve pints of water, till they are reduced to eight ; the patient 

 begins taking half a pint, morning and evening, then more fre- 

 quently, if the purgative effect is not too violent. Should it prove 

 so, the medicine must be omitted for three or four days, and then 

 again taken, till the cure is completed. The ulcers are to bo 

 washed with a decoction of the roots, and if deep and foul, 

 sprinkled with the powder of the inner bark of the Ceanothus 

 Americanus, New Jersey Tea, or Red-root, and which is sometimes 

 used as a substitute. The leaves of this plant were used during 



