STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 



blue-flowered Lobelia of slenderer habit is L. spicata, the 

 leaves growing up the wand-like stem in threes, with inter- 

 vals between; it has a one-sided look. The spike of flowers 

 is loose and scattered, the leaves very thin, long and narrow, 

 light-green and smooth. 



Though by no means so showy for, indeed, it is a very 

 simple-looking flower but more remarkable for its uses and 

 medicinal qualities, is the celebrated 



INDIAN TOBACCO Lobelia inflata (L.). 



This plant is much sought after by the old settlers and by 

 the Indian medicine-men, who consider it to be possessed 

 of rare virtues, infallible as a remedy in fevers and nervous 

 diseases. At first it has the effect of producing utter pros- 

 tration of the nervous system, and is known to be of a poison- 

 ous nature. It is, I suppose, a case of " kill or cure." 



A decoction of the dried plant relieves fever through the 

 pores of the skin; but though used by some of the old 

 settlers, it should not be administered by anyone inex- 

 perienced in its peculiar effects. The Indians smoke the 

 dried leaves, from which fact the common name is derived 

 Indian Tobacco. They also call the plant Kinnikinic, which, 

 I suppose, means " good to smoke," as the word is also 

 applied to one of the Cornels, as well as to the aromatic 

 Wintergreen, and more generally to the Bearberry (Arcto- 

 staphylos) the leaves of these plants being used as a sub- 

 stitute for the common Tobacco, or to increase its influence 

 when smoking " the weed." 



The Indian Tobacco is a small branching biennial, from 

 nine to eighteen inches high ; leaves ovate-lanceolate, light 

 green; seed vessel inflated; flowers pale blue, veined with 

 delicate pencilled lines of a darker hue; soil, mostly dry 

 woods or open pastures; nature of this innocent looking 



herb a virulent poison. 



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