LOBELIACE^E. 



Nat. syst. ed. 2. p. 235. 



LOBELIA. 



Limb of calyx 5-parted. Corolla irregular, tubular ; the tube 

 slit on the upper side and ventricose at base ; the limb bilabiate. 

 Filaments syngenesious ; anthers either all bearded, or the two 

 lower only. Capsule 2-celled, 2-valved, many-seeded, dehiscing 

 at the apex. 



823. L. inflata Linn, sp.pl 1320. Bigelow med. hot. i. t. 19. 

 Sweet fl. garden 99. An annual, found in fields and road sides 

 in the United States. (Indian Tobacco.) 



Height from 6 inches to 2 or 3 feet. The small plants are nearly 

 simple, the large ones much branched. Root fibrous. Stem erect, in 

 the full-sized plant much branched, angular, very hairy. Leaves scat- 

 tered, sessile, oval, serrate, hairy. Spikes or racemes peduncled, each 

 from the axil of a small leaf. Segments of the calyx subulate. Ovary 

 oblong, striated. Corolla bluish purple ; the tube prismatic and cleft 

 above, the segments spreading, acute; the 2 upper ones lanceolate, 

 the 3 lower ones oval. Anthers collected into an oblong, curved body, 

 purple ; filaments white. Style filiform ; stigma curved and inclosed 

 by the anthers. Capsule 2-celled, turgid, oval, compressed, 10-angled, 

 crowned with the calyx. Seeds numerous, small, oblong, brown. 

 An acrid narcotic, and most powerful emetic. Used in asthma, with 

 great advantage. In small doses it is expectorant and diaphoretic, ex- 

 citing expectoration without the pain of coughing. In such doses as a 

 common tea spoonful of the seeds and leaves, in which quantity irre- 

 gular practitioners have ventured to give it, it frequently proves fatal in 

 5 or 6 hours. It has been used instead of Tobacco, in the form of 

 enema, in strangulated hernia. 



824. L. siphilitica Linn. sp. 1320. Jacq. ic. rar. iii. t. 597. 

 Woodv. t. 63. Bot. Eeg. t. 537. United States. 



A bright but rather pale green perennial, growing about 2 feet high. 

 Stem erect, angular, very slightly hairy. Leaves ovate-oblong, acute at 

 each end, rather wavy, unequally serrated, slightly hairy. Raceme 

 terminal, leafy, cylindrical, dense. Peduncles bracteolate, hairy, shorter 

 than the acuminate hairy bracts. Calyx leafy, with ovate, acuminate 

 hairy segments, half as long as the tube of the corolla and reflexed at 

 the sinus. Corolla deep blue in the tube, paler in the limb, the lower 

 lip of which is convex and white at the base ; all the segments ovate 

 and acute. Tube of the stamens deep blue, elevated through and 

 beyond the dorsal slit of the corolla. The whole plant has a rank 

 smell. Its root is acrid and emetic, and has been used as a remedy for 

 403 DD 2 



