LOB 



LOB 



af Britifh natives indeed, Ray accufes Iiim of having made 

 feveral miftakes, from having trufted too much to his me- 

 mory. 



The Stirp'i'im B'ljlor'ia of this author, a vohime in fmall 

 foUo fimilar to his Adiierfatia, was pubhfhed at Antwerp in 

 1576. This is much lefs copious in matter, the pages being- 

 moftly occupied with wooden cuts, which are thofe of 

 Cluiius, borrowed for the prefent occafion by the printer, 

 Plantin. An impreffion of thefe cuts, of an oblong (hape, 

 was ftruck off, with names only, in ijSi, and another in 

 1591. JLinnxus poiTefled both. This publication is in very 

 general ufe, and well known by the title of Lobel's hones. 

 It is, when c'omplete, accompanied by an index in feven 

 languages. 



Lobel feems to have had a very large work in contemola- 

 tion, which he intended to call Surphim lUujlraUoncs. This 

 he did not live to complete. A fragn^ent of it was pub- 

 Kfhed in" quarto, without plates, by Dr. W. How, in 1655', 

 making 170 pages, befides a cauftic preface of the author, 

 aimed chiefly at Gerarde, whom he doubtlefs comprehends 

 among the ^^fordldi pharmacar'si," charged with robbing the 

 moll experienced phyficians of their honours. The body of 

 the work is interfperfed with notes of Dr. How's againft 

 Parkinfon, who is faid to have made diihoneft ufe, in his 

 Thiatrum Botanicmn, of fome papers of Lobel, that fell into 

 his hands. It mull be allowed that fuch authors are juftly 

 cenfured for tranflating and interweaving defcriptions,' re- 

 marks, and places of growth, from foreign works, which 

 apply to the plants of other countries. This fault is not 

 diiiimilar from what we have cenfured in a more mpdern 

 writer ; fee Lightfoot, and the botanical article Flora. 

 But the (lyle of Lobel's preface is properly reprobated by 

 Dr. Pulteney, who blames him for this grofa abufe of Ge- 

 rarde after his death, though he had formerly on every oc- 

 cafion extolled him. The botanical contents of this frag- 

 ment are, however, very honourable to Lobel, for the num. 

 ber of new pUnts therein mentioned. 



Our author laboured to an advanced age in the purfuit 

 of liis favourite iludy, and procured from '.'.is correl pendents 

 abroad, many new plants for the gardens of his friends. 

 Ke had the fuperintendance of a garden at Hackney, culti- 

 vated at the expence of lord Zouch ; and appears to have 

 reiided, in the decline of life, at Highgate, where he had a 

 daughter, married to a Mr. James Coel. His wife is re- 

 corded as having aflilled him in his botanical refearcLes. 

 Hedied ini6i6, aged 78. Lobel's works. Haller's Bibl. 

 Bot. Pulteney's Sketches. 



Lobel, a ilroUing, blind, fiddling, Bohemian Jew, the 

 flrfl mailer, on the violin, of the celebrated Benda, firll violin 

 to Frederic II. king of Pruffia, during the whole reign of 

 that mulical prince. See Ben'da, and Buniey's German 

 Tour, vol. ii. 



LOBELIA, in Botany, fo called in honour of Matthias 

 de Lobel ; fee that article. The plant to which Plumier 

 eriginally applied the nanje, is now the Sciziiola of Linnasus. 

 When the latter, at the fiiggeftion of Jacquiii, difcovered 

 that he and other botaniils had confounded, under this ori- 

 ginal Lobelia, a vail number of fpecies generic-ally diftinfl 

 from it, but which were then become much better known 

 than itfelf by the name in qucftion, he judged it much lefs 

 inconvenient to keep this name for them, and to give the 

 genus of Plumier a new one. It is hoped the fame meafure 

 would be adopted, fliould any botanill afcertain the original 

 ■ Magnolia of Plumier, to be really diftinft in generic cha- 

 racters from all the other fpecies lo called, of which there is 

 faid to be fome fufpicion. — Linn. Gen. 456. Schreb. 596. 

 Willd. Sp. PI. V. I. 937. Mart. Mill. Diet. v. 3. Sm. 



FI. Brit. 242. Ait. Hort. Kew. ed. 2. v. r. 356. 

 JufT. 165. Lamarck Illuftr. t. 724. (Rapuntium ; Tcum. 

 t. 51. Gxrtn. t. 30.) — ^Clafs and order, Penlnndria Mono- 

 gynia. (Syngenefia Monogamia ; Linn.) Nat. Ord. Cam- 

 paiiaceis, Linn. Juff. 



Gen. Ch. Cal. Perianth of one leaf, fiirrounding the 

 germen, in five deep, nearly equal, withering fegments ; 

 the two fnperior ones mod directed upwards. Cor. of one 

 petal, irregular, (lightly ringent ; tube cyhndrical, longer 

 than the calyx, divided lengthwife at the upper fide ; limb 

 in five deep lanceolate fegments, of which the two upper- 

 mod are fmalleil, mod refiexed, and moft deeply feparated, 

 condituting the uppej- lip ; the three lowermod more ipread- 

 ing, and generally larged. Stam. Filaments five, awl- 

 fliaped, the length of the tube of the corolla, united up- 

 wards ; anthers united into an oblong, fomewhat oblique 

 and curved, cylinder, feparating into five parts at the bafe. 

 Pyi. Germen more than half inferior, pointed ; ftyle cylin.^ 

 drical, the length of the daniens ; lligma obtufe, hifpid. 

 Peric. Capfule ovate, or roundilh, of two or three, cells, 

 and two or three valves, burding at the top, encompaded by 1 

 the calyx ; the partitions contrary to the valves. Seeds nu- 

 merous, minute, fmooth. Receptacle comc-s\. 



E!T. Ch. Calyx in five fegments, crowning the germen.- 

 CoroUa of one petal, irregular. Anthers cohering, in- 

 curved. Capfule half inferior, of two or three cells. 



So much uncertainty attends the charaiters of fome 

 plants which have been referred to Lobelia, that we can 

 hardly guefs with any degree of correCtnels at the number" 

 of fpecies. The 14th edition of the Svflema Vegetabillum 

 exhibits the latell view that Linnasus or his Ion took of the 

 genus, and there 42 fpecies are enumerated, of which how- 

 ever the 21 ft, Itsvigata, and 2 ylh, /uririameiijis, are one and 

 the Came, and iffW/a, No. 40, which is partifoHa (not parvi- 

 Jlora) of Bergius, is Lightfootta oxycoccoides ; fee Light- 

 FOOTIA. Three others, Phyteuma, bulhofa, and 'uolubil'is, go 

 along with Cyphia, cardatnines, and incifa, of Thunberg's 

 Prod. 159, to form the genus Cyphi.v, Berg. Cap. 173. 

 Willd. Sp. PI. V. I. 9,2. Ait. Hort. Kew. ed. 2. v. 1. 362, 

 of which we have fpoken in its place, and which perhaps, 

 when vie confider its having five dirtincl petals, with linear 

 and draight, as well as feparate, anthers, may be allowed 

 to conditute a tolerably good, though not a very natural, 

 genus. Willdenow, retaining this genus, has diU 48 I^obclite,- 

 difpofed in three, not very correCl, fettions, of each of 

 which we diall mention a few examples. Two fpecies only 

 are natives of Britain. 



Seel. I. Leaves entire. 



L. Dortmamia. Water Lobelia. Linn. Sp. PI. 1318.- 

 EnL'l. Bot. t. 140. Fl. Dan. t. 39. (Dortmanna lacullris, 

 floribus fparfis perdulis ; Rudb. Aft. Upf. for 1720. 97. 

 f. 2. Gladiolus lacudris ; Ger. em. 105.) — Leaves linear, 

 entire, of two parallel cells Stem nearly naked. — Found 

 in the clear fhallow parts of lakes, in the colder parts- of 

 Europe, growing in the pure gravelly bottom, and raifing 

 the flowering part of its ilem only above the furface. The 

 rorit \s perennial, compofed of numerous, long, white, 

 fimple fibres, i/^ri imooih, milky when wounded. Radical 

 leaves numerous, entirely immcrfed, linear, recurved, nearly 

 cylindrical, though flattilh on the upper fide, obtufe, two 

 or three inches long, very remarkable for confiding inter- 

 nally of two cavities, feparated by a longitudinal partition. 

 Stem folitary, ereft, round, hollow, almod leaflefs, bearing 

 a loofe cliider of pendulous hluefo'wers in July and -S uguft, 

 often overflowed by fudden floods. Clvfius received this 

 plant from a Mr. Dortmann, and has reprefented it in his 

 Cura Pof.eriorcs, 40 ; but the cut, reprinted in Jchnfon"s 



tdiiioa 



