418 MEDICAL BOTANY. 



This order consists of suffruticose or herbaceous plants, often yielding a 

 milky or acrid juice, and having alternate leaves, without stipules. The 

 flowers are usually axillary, solitary, or racemose. They are all dangerous 

 plants, belonging to the acro-narcotic class. Besides those belonging to Lo- 

 belia, Tupa feuillcei, a shrubby plant, occurring in Chili, is said by Lesson 

 (Voi/. Med. 167) to be so acrid and poisonous, that if, after touching it, the 

 hand is applied to the eyes, a violent ophthalmia will ensue ; taken internally 

 it causes vomiting, great pain, and death. Feuillee says that even the odour 

 of the flowers will produce vomiting (Plant. Med., ii. 739). Isotoma longi- 

 flora, a native of the West Indies, is possessed of equally virulent properties. 

 In some of them this milky exudation is milder ; thus the Siphocampylus 

 caoutchouc of South America furnishes gum elastic. 



Lobelia. — Linn. 



Calyx 5-lobed. Corolla irregular, 5-parted, cleft on the upper side nearly to the base. 

 Anthers united. Stigma 2-lobed. Ovary inferior or semi-superior, and somewhat free. 

 Capsule 2-valved, many-seeded. 



A genus under this name was established by Plumier, and dedicated to 

 Lobel ; but he included a great number of dissimilar plants, the best known 

 of which Linnseus retained under Plumier's name, and placed the others in a 

 new genus under the appellation of Scsevola. It contains a great variety of 

 species, several of which are natives of the United States. They are all pos- 

 sessed of very active qualities, and some of them are highly poisonous, but 

 only one of them is officinal. 



L. inflata, Linn. — Stem erect, hairy. Leaves alternate, sparse, oval, nearly sessile, 

 serrate, hairy. Flowers in slender racemes, the pedicels with an acuminate, bract. Cap- 

 sule ovoid, inflated. 



Linn., Sp. PI. 1006 ; Barton, Veg. Mat. Med. i. 181 ; Bigelow, Med. Bot. 

 i. 177 ; Rafinesque, Med. Flor. ii. 22. 



Common Names. — Lobelia ; Wild Tobacco ; Indian Tobacco. 

 Foreign Name. — Lobelie enflee, Ft. 



Description. — Root biennial, fibrous, yellowish-white. Stem erect, from six inches 

 to two feet high, angular, very pubescent or sometimes hairy, and much branched to- 

 wards the top. Leaves scattered, alternate, sessile, ovate, or oblong, unequally serrate, 

 and hirsute. The flowers are numerous, in terminal racemes, and supported on short 

 peduncles, each arising from the axil of a small bract. The calyx is 5-toothed, the 

 segments being linear and as long as the corolla. The corolla is of a pale-blue colour, 

 monopetalous, but cleft on its upper side nearly to its base, bilabiate ; upper lip 2 and 

 lower lip 3-toothcd. Capsule ovoid, inflated, striated, crowned by the persistent calyx, 

 2-celled, and containing numerous, small seeds. 



The Lobelia is very common throughout the United States, in neglected 

 fields, along road-sides, and the edges of woods., It flowers in July, and con- 

 tinues in bloom until destroyed by the frost. Some difference of opinion 

 exists as to its duration ; Linnaeus, Pursh, and others considering it as an 

 annual, Barton and Rafinesque as a biennial, and Elliott as a perennial. As 

 far as my observation extends it is both annual and biennial in the Middle 

 States, but more generally the latter. The whole plant is endowed with active 

 properties, but the leaves and capsules are to be preferred. It should be 

 gathered about August and September, and dried in the shade. It has a 

 somewhat unpleasant odour, and an acrid, burning, nauseous taste, which is 

 at first faint, but soon becomes excessive. It gives out its properties both to 

 water and alcohol ; but heat destroys, in a great measure, its active qualities. 



