LEAVES AND HERBS. 
225 
taining from 35 to 55 per cent, of carvone (the oil from 
the Russian spearmint containing about 50 per cent, 
of linalool and 5 to 10 per cent, of carvone) ; resin and 
tannin. 
LOBELIA. 
The leaves and flowering tops of Lobelia inflata (Fam. 
Campanulacese), an annual herb indigenous to the 
Eastern and Centra] United States and Canada, and 
cultivated in New York and Massachusetts. Lobelia 
should be collected after a portion of the capsules have 
become inflated, carefully dried and preserved. 
Description. — Stem cylindrical, somewhat angular, 
slightly winged, light brown, with numerous spreading 
hairs, internodes 2 to 3 cm. long. Leaves elliptical or 
ovate-lanceolate, alternate, 4 to 9 cm. long, 8 to 30 mm. 
broad ; apex acute or acuminate; base obtuse or acute; 
margin irregularly denticulate, the divisions with a 
yellowish-brown gland-like apex ; upper surface yel- 
lowish green or light brown and with scattered bristly 
hairs; under surface light brown, with numerous 
bristly hairs, the veins of the first order diverging at 
an angle of about 65° and curving upward near the 
margin ; petiole either wanting or about 1 mm. long. 
Inflorescence in leafy spikes; pedicel about 3 mm. long; 
calyx five-parted, about 5 mm. long, the subulate lobes 
about as long as the tube ; corolla five-parted, tubular, 
about as long as the calyx, pale blue, upper portion 
cleft nearly to the base, the lobes on either side of the 
cleft erect or recurved, the other three united; stamens 
with anthers united above into a curved tube; stigma 
two-lobed, ovary two-celled. Fruit an ovoid inflated 
capsule 5 to 8 mm. long, opening at the summit, apex 
with the remains of the calyx. Seeds numerous, 
brownish, somewhat ellipsoidal or ovoid, about 0‘7 
