REPORT OF THE BOTANIST. 



west of that line. It varies in height from 6 inches to 2 feet. The 

 small plauts arc very little branched, while the large ones are much 

 branched. The stem is erect, angular, and roughish hairy. The leaves 

 are numerous, particularly on the lower part of the stem. They are 

 scattered, of an oblong form, the lower ones 2 to 3 inches long, di- 

 minishing toward the top and becoming quite small on the branches. 

 They are roughish, obtusely toothed on the margin, and without leaf- 

 stalks. The branches vary in number and in length — commonly from 

 3 to 6 inches long, with the flowers arranged alternately toward the ends 

 in spike-like racemes. The flowers are small, usually less than a quarter 

 of au inch in length and with very short stalks. The flower is of the 

 kind called superior, or seated above the ovary. The calyx consists of five 

 small, narrow, linear segments. The corolla is of a bluish color, of Ave 

 lanceolate segments, which are more or less united into a tube which is 

 split down on the upper side, being somewhat two-lipped, the upper lip 

 with two lobes and the lower with three. The five stamens are free 

 from the corolla and united together by their filaments into a tube. 

 The style is slender and partly inclosed in the tube of stamens. The 

 ovary as it enlarges becomes a capsule much larger than the flower, 

 sometimes half an inch long, ovate, two-celled, and filled with a large 

 number of minute, brownish seeds. The leaves, capsules, and seeds of 

 this plant when chewed cause a burning or biting sensation somewhat 

 like the taste of green tobacco. If a sufficient quantity be taken and 

 the juice swallowed it causes at length sickness and vomiting, the nausea 

 being prolonged and sometimes attended with giddiness and pain in 

 the head. The plant has been used not only for its emetic properties, 

 but also in the treatment of asthma and catarrhal affections. 



There are several other species of lobelia, some with large and hand- 

 some flowers, but they are rarely employed medicinally. Plate XIV. 



Sanguinaria Canadensis— Blood-root. 



A low perennial herb, with a thick fleshy prostrate root-stock, filled 

 with a reddish orange- colored juice. The rhizoma develops near its 

 extremity a few lateral as well as a terminal bud. Very early in the 

 season — in March in the South, in ISTew England in April — this bud ex- 

 pands and pushes forward a solitary leaf and a single flower-stalk. The 

 leaf is at first rolled around the flower-stalk, and gradually unfolds, 

 and continues growing for two or three months, when the leaf-stalk 

 may be 6 to 10 inches long, and the leaf becomes 4 to 6 inches across, of 

 a kidney form or rounded heart shape, very smooth, and divided into 

 five to seven rounded and more or less obtusely toothed lobes. The 

 single large flower, an inch in diameter when expanded, is at the end of 

 a naked scape or stalk which is 4 to 8 inches long. The flower is ex- 

 tremely fugacious, expanding and falling to pieces almost the same day. 

 It consists of two outside greenish ovate obtuse sepals, eight to twelve, 

 oblong, spreading, pure white petals, twenty to twenty-four stamens, and 

 the ovary tipped with a short style, and a thickish two cleft or grooved 

 stigma. The ovary continues to enlarge after the fall of the flower un- 

 til at maturity it becomes a lanceolate flattened pod about 2 inches 

 long with two valves, and filled with numerous small shining dark red 

 seeds. 



The root-stock is half to three-fourths of an inch in thickness, emitting 

 numerous small fibrous roots. It is easily broken across, and then dis- 

 plays a reddish surface from the quantity of juice which it contains. 



The root-stock, or root, as commonly called, is thepart which is em- 

 ployed medicinally. It has been used in a variety of complaints, but 

 chiefly those of the pulmonary organs. Plate XV. 



