HERBA LOBELIA 399 



substance possesses more than very slight sedative properties, if indeed 

 it is not absolutely inert.^ 



LOBELIACE^. 



HERBA LOBELIiE. 



Lobelia, Indian Tobacco ; F. Lobelie en flee; G. Loheliakraut. 



Botanical Origin — Lobelia inflata L., an annual herb, 9 to 18 

 inches high, with an angular upright stem, simple or more frequently 

 branching near the top, widely diffused throughout the eastern part of 

 North America from Canada to the Mississippi, growing in neglected 

 fields, along roadsides, and on the edges of woods, and thriving well in 

 European gardens. 



History — Lobelia inflata was described and figured by Linnaeus ^ 

 from specimens cultivated by him at Upsala about 1741, but he does 

 not attribute to the plant any medicinal virtues. 



The aborigines of North America made use of the herb, which from 

 this circumstance and its acrid taste, came to be called Indian Tobacco. 

 In Europe it was noticed by Schopf, ^ but with little appreciation of its 

 powers. In America it has long been in the hands of quack doctors, 

 but its value in asthma was set forth by Cutler in 1813. It was not 

 emploj^ed in England until about 1829, when, with several other 

 remedies, it was introduced to the medical profession by Reece.* 



Description — The leaves are 1 to 3 inches long, scattered, sessile, 

 ovate-lanceolate, rather acute, obscurely toothed, somewhat pubescent. 

 The edge of the leaf bears small whitish glands, and between them 

 isolated hairs which are more frequent on the under than on the upper 

 surface. They are usually in greater abundance on the lower and 

 middle portions of the stem. 



The stem of the growing plant exudes when wounded a small quan- 

 tity of acrid milky juice, contained in laticiferous vessels running also 

 into the leaves. The inconspicuous blossoms are arranged in a many- 

 flowered, terminal, leafy raceme. The five-cleft, bilabiate corolla is 

 bluish with a yellow spot on the under lip, its tube being as long as 

 the somewhat divergent limb of the calyx. 



The capsule is ovoid, inflated, ten-ribbed, crowned by five elongated 

 sepals which are half as long as the ripe fruit. The latter is two-celled, 

 and contains a large number of ovate-oblong seeds about -V ^^ *ui i^ch 

 in length, having a reticulated, pitted surface. 



The herb found in commerce is in the form of rectangular cakes, 

 1 to If inches thick, consisting of the yellowish-green chopped herb, 

 compressed as it would seem while still moist, and afterwards neatly 



^Stille, Therapeutics and Mat. Med. i. ^ Acta Soc. Ren. Scient. Upsal. 1746 



(1868) 756. Garrod [Med. Times and 23. 



Gazette, 26 March, 1864), gave lactucarium ^ Mat. Med. Americana, Erlangse, 1787. 



in drachm doses, repeated 3 or 4 times a 128. 



day, without being able to perceive that it * Treatise on the Bladder-podded Lobelia^ 



had any effect either as an anodyne or Lend. 1829. 

 hypnotic. 



