290 The Sheep Scabious. 



« 



will amply repay the slight care and attention which it 

 requires. 



There are several other handsome species, worthy f cu i 

 ture. A common American species, L. inflata, is in great us 

 among a certain class of quacks, as an emetic, and an unskil- 

 ful use of it has more than once caused the death of the patient 

 According to Dr. Gray, less than a tea-spoonful of the seeds or 

 powdered leaves would destroy life in a few hours. The 

 juice of all the species, indeed, possesses an acid, narcotic 

 poisonous principle, in greater or less intensity. There are 

 nearly fifty species of Lobelia, the greater part of which are 

 natives of America, while some inhabit the Cape of Good 

 Hope, Japan, and the South of Europe. In New England 

 there are seven or eight species, and five more in the Southern 

 States. 



JASIONE— THE SHEEP SCABIOUS. 



Natural Order, Campanulacese ; Linnacan System, Peutandria, Monogyuia. 

 Generic Characters :— Flowers in heads ; common involucre ten-leaved* 

 calyx five-cleft ; corolla deeply five-parted; segments linear lanceolate 1 

 anthers cohering at base ; stigma bifid ; capsule two-celled. 



J. perennw. — Stems erect, simple. Leaves ralher hairy; radical onesobo- 

 vate ; caulinc ones oblong linear, Qat. Peduncles naked. — PI. 40. Fig. I 



This genus has somewhat puzzled botanists. It was at first 

 placed among Compositae, and it certainly bears a strong 

 affinity to that order, in its headed flowers and united anthers. 

 The seeds, however, are numerous, while the Composite have 

 only one in each seed vessel, and the bracts are distinct instead 

 of being grown together. The name of the genus was applied 

 by Pliny to some unknown plant. 



The perennial species is a native of the South of Europe, 

 and is sometimes cultivated. It is a very showy plant, with 

 flowers of a deep blue. It is grown in the open border, and 

 flowers abundandy all summer. 



