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LOBELIACE.E. (Lobeliads.) A natural 

 order of dicotyledonous plants, belonging 

 to Lindley's campanal alliance of epigynous 

 Exogens. Milky herbs or shrubs with 

 alternate exstipulate leaves ; calyx su- 

 perior, its limb often five-lobed ; corolla 

 irregularly flve-lobed, often deeply cleft ; 

 stamens epigynous, the anthers united ; 

 stigma fringed. Fruit capsular, one or 

 more celled, opening at the top ; seeds 

 numerous, with albumen. Found chiefly 

 in tropical and subtropical climates. Acrid 

 and narcotic qualities prevail in the order, 

 which contains about twenty-nine genera, 

 and nearly four hundred species. Exam- 

 ples : Lobelia, Siphocampylos. [J. H. B.] 



LOBELIA. This genus commemorates 

 Matthew Lobel, a physician and botanist 

 of the seventeenth century, who was at- 

 tached to the court of James I. It also 

 forms the typical family of Lobeliacece, and 

 consists of a large number of herbaceous 

 plants, widely distributed over the tropical 

 and subtropical regions of the globe, es- 

 pecially in America, less abundantly found 

 in Northern Europe and Asia. In general 

 habit the species vary much, but are more 

 constant in the characters presented by 

 the flowers, which have a flve-lobed calyx 

 with a variously-shaped tube ; a corolla 

 whose tube is slit along the upper side, 

 and whose limb is divided into two lips, 

 the upper of two, the lower of three di- 

 visions ; anthers united into a tube round 

 the style, two, or sometimes all of them, 

 hairy at the top ; and an ovary more or less 

 adherent to the calyx. 



As is very frequently the case with 

 milky-juiced plants, some of the species of 

 this genus have acrid properties. Such, 

 are L. cardinalis, L. syphilitica, and espe- : 

 cially L. injlata, a North American plant, | 

 sometimes called Indian Tobacco, the 

 symptoms to which it gives rise, as well 

 as its flavour, being not unlike those of 

 tobacco. Given in small doses it operates 

 as a diaphoretic and expectorant, in larger 

 ones as an emetic, while in excessive doses 

 it acts as a powerful acrid narcotic poison, 

 causing great prostration, convulsions, and 

 death. Serious results have followed the 

 injudicious administration of this drug by 

 so-called 'medical botanists,' who deny 

 that the plant is a poison. In medicinal 

 doses, the drug has been, and still is, occa- 

 sionally used in spasmodic asthma with 

 advantage. 



Numerous species of this genus are I 

 cultivated in English gardens for the j 

 splendour of their flowers, among which L. \ 

 cardinalis, L. splendent, and L. fulgens are 

 especially conspicuous. Several varieties 

 of these species are now cultivated, the 

 flowers of which present every shade of 

 scarlet, purple, and blue. L. Erinus is a low- 

 growing trailing plant, with small pale 

 blue flowers, much used as a bedding plant. 

 Two species are British : L. Dortmanna, 

 found in shallow lakes, and L.urens, which 

 grows in heathy places. DM. T. M.] 



LOBESTENS. The fruits of Cordia Myxa 

 and latifolia. 



LOBIOLE. One of the small lobes into 

 which the thallusof some lichens is divided. 



LOBULE. A small lobe Thus lobulate 

 means divided into small lobes. 



LOBLOLLY WOOD. The wood of Cu- 

 pania glabra ; also of Pisonia cordata. 



LOBLOLLY SWEET WOOD. A West 

 Indian name for Sciadophyllum Jacquinii. 



LOBOCARPUS. A little-known genus 

 of Anonacew, having the fruit described 

 as enclosed within a persistent tubular 

 leathery three-cleft calyx, and as consist- 

 ing of Ave carpels combined into a flve- 

 lobed and five-celled fruit, with two seeds 

 in each cell. [M. T. AL] 



LOCELLI, LOCULI. The peridia of cer- 

 tain fun gals. 



I LOCELLUS. A secondary cell; a small 

 cell within a larger. 



LOCHERIA. One of the subgenera of 

 Aclrimenes, consisting of erect herbs with 

 axillary or subpaniculate flowers, the 

 peculiar features of which are an oblique 

 funnel-shaped corolla much larger than 

 the calyx, a nearly entire five-angled 

 fleshy ring round the ovary, and a two- 

 cleft stigma. A hirsuta and pedunculate 

 are illustrations. [T. M.] 



LOOULATE, LOCULAR. Divided into 



cells. 



LOCULUS, LOCULAMENTUM. A cell 

 or cavity. Usually the cell of a fruit or 

 ovary ; that is to> say, the cavity of one or 

 more carpels. Also the perithecium of 

 certain fungals. 



LOCULICIDAL. That mode of dehis- 

 cence which consists in ripened carpels 

 splitting or dehiscing through their backs. 



LOCULOSE. Divided by internal parti- 

 tions into cells, as the pith of the walnut- 

 tree. This is never applied to fruits. 



LOCUSTA. A spikelet of grasses ; that 

 is to say, one of the collections of florets 

 formed in such plants. 



LOCUST-BERRY. Malpighia coriacea. 



LOCUST-TREE. Ceratonia Sittqua ; also 

 Robinia Pseud- Acacia. —, BASTARD. 

 Clethra tinifolia. —, HONEY. GlediUchia 

 triacanthos. — , SWAMP or WATER. Gle- 

 ditschia monosperma. — , WEST INDIAN. 

 Eymencea Courbaril; also Byrsonima co- 

 riacea and cinerea. 



LODDIGESIA. A small glabrous under- 

 shrub with trifoliolate leaves, and small 

 purple and white flowers in short terminal 

 racemes. It is a native of the Cape, and 

 forms of itself a genus of Leguminosce in 

 the section Papilionaceo?, nearly allied to 

 Hypocalyptus, but differing chiefly in the 

 very short vexillum or upper petal and in 

 the very flat ovate acute pod. It is a rather 

 pretty species, and has been in cultivation, 

 though now apparently abandoned. 



