348 
. AMEBICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[November, 
The Cardinal Flower —Lobelia Cardinalis. 
Prom mid-summer until early autumn, there 
may be found along the banks of streams, and 
in wet places, a native flower of so rich a deep 
red color, that it usually arrests the attention 
even of those who do not ordinarily notice 
plants. It is the Cardinal-flower—but no Car¬ 
dinal ever wore as the sign of his office a hat 
of so intense a scarlet as wears this wild flower. 
We have attempted in the engraving to give the 
shape of the flower, which together with its re¬ 
markable color will enable it to be identified. 
The plant is a perennial, forming clumps of 
herbaceous stems two to four feet high, each 
one of which bears a long raceme of flowers of 
the size and shape here shown. The flower 
cluster is often more one-sided and usually long¬ 
er than in the ehgraving. If the flower be ex- | 
amined closely, its structure will be found to be 
rather unusual. The corolla at first sight ap¬ 
pears as if the plant belonged to the Mint- 
family, it being somewhat 2-lipped, the lower 
lip wdth three spreading divisions, and the up¬ 
per with two somewhat erect ones; but. a fur¬ 
ther examination will show that the corolla is 
split do\yn its whole length at a point between 
the two upper lobes or divisions. Moreover, 
the stamens are curiously united for their whole 
length, anthers and all, into a tube much longer 
than the corolla, and which encloses the long 
and slender pistil. The pod contains many 
very small seeds. These are characters which 
are not found in the Mint-family, but which dis¬ 
tinguish the Lobelia family. The genus is named 
Lobelia, after Lobel. The specific name is in refei'- 
ence to the red hat worn by the Cardinals of the 
church of Rome. Though this plant naturally 
inhabits swampy ground, it does very well in 
rich garden soil, and a clump of it is not ex¬ 
celled in beauty by any of the exotics. The 
roots should be removed as the leaves begin to 
wither in autumn, or the spot carefully marked 
so that they can be dug up in spring. We once 
saw in the Botanical Garden, at Cambridge, 
Mass., a white variety, and Doctor Gray records 
a rose colored one as having been found in that 
State. As the plant seems to have a tendency 
to sport in its wild state, it is probable that a 
pains-taking florist might produce some striking 
varieties from the seed. Besides this, there are 
several exotic species cultivated in the garden and 
Green-house, which are valued for their delica¬ 
cy and beauty, rather than for the showiness of 
their flowers. We have a large blue-flowered, 
native species. Lobelia syphillitiea, the Great 
Lobelia, which has flowers of a fine color, but 
the plant is rather coarse and weedy in appear¬ 
ance. There are about ten other native species, 
but none of them as striking as those we have 
mentioned. One of these. Lobelia inflata, is an 
annual, with very small flowers; it is called 
inflata on account of its bladdery seed pod. 
The popular name of this is “ Indian Tobacco 
it is possessed of violent emetic and narcotic 
properties, and has frequently proved fatal in 
the hands of quacks. These persons, who 
know as little about names as they do about 
medicine, call this iozr-belia, and distinguish 
the Cardinal flower, which they also sometimes 
employ in their mal-practice, as iZiy/i-belia, 
The Benne or Sesame. 
In the catalogues we find among the seeds 
of “ medicinal herbs,” Benne seed, and the 
plant is frequently grown in gardens because it 
is “ good in case of sickness.” The readers of 
the Agriculturist will bear witness that we 
do not advocate herb—or any other kind of 
popular physic, and this notice of the Benne 
will not be an exception to the usual course, 
for, as we shall show presently, the plant be¬ 
longs to that class of safe remedies which “will 
do no hurt if it does no good.” We notice the 
plant because we have had inquiries about it, 
and seeing it growing in the garden of Mr. 
Sampson Gordon, of Staten Island, we have had 
a figure of it engraved, which will give a suffi¬ 
ciently good idea of its appearance. Benne or 
Sesame is a native of Asia and Africa, and our 
cold climate does not allow it to reach its full 
development. The engraving gives the size of 
the leaves, etc., as it appears with us, where the 
plant, which is an annual, only grows about two 
feet high, while in tropical countries it is 5 or 6 
feet high, and robust in proportion; nor does it 
usually ripen its seeds at the North! The bo¬ 
tanical name of the plant is Sesamum Indicum, 
and it is closely related to the Trumpet Creeper 
and the Martynia of the gardens. The seeds 
are small and yellowish and contain a great 
deal of oil. They are used considerably for 
food, in the same manner as the grains in orien¬ 
tal countries, and by the negroes at the South. 
In the old story of the Forty Thieves, the cave 
which contained the treasures of the robbers 
would only open at the proper word; the poor 
cobbler who discovered the place tried “ open 
barley,” and other grains, but the cave remained 
closed until he said “ open sesame.” Probably 
many of our readers use the term “open sesame” 
without knowing that it refers in any way to 
the plant under notice. The oil obtained from 
the seeds is of an excellent quality and is used 
for the same purposes as olive oil. We have 
seen large fields of the plant in Mexico, where 
it is grown for oil making. 
A remarkable peculiarity of the plant is the 
amount of mucilage contained in its leaves. If 
one or two fresh leaves be placed in a tumbler of 
cold water the liquid will in a' few minutes be¬ 
come thick and ropy, like a thin mucilage of 
gum arable, and remain pcrfcctlj’’ ti'ansparent. 
The leaves are used in this way to make a mu¬ 
cilaginous drink for those sick with inflamma¬ 
tory diseases of the bowels, etc. It is probably 
quite inert medicinally, but answers as a substi¬ 
tute for gum arable, slippery elm, marsh mal¬ 
low, and similar bland articles, and may be ad¬ 
vantageously employed where a pure and taste¬ 
less mucilaginous drink is required. The seeds 
are rather slow in germinating: they are sown 
in rows eighteen inches apart, and the plants 
are thinned to a foot in the row. 
