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 
Inp1an Topacco—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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