ON LOBELIA C ARDIN AL1S. 
2S1 
streamlets, and is one of the most showy of our native plants. 
It blooms from the last of July till September. 
This plant has attracted little notice in a medicinal point of 
view; its chief claim as a remedial agent seems to be the an- 
thelmintic powers which are ascribed to it by the Cherokee 
Indians. Dr. W. P. C. Barton, however, from all he has 
learned, considers it deserving of further attention from medi- 
cal practitioners. 
CHEMICAL HISTORY. 
As it is interesting, as well as sometimes important, in a 
chemico-botanical point of view, to be acquainted with the 
proximate constituents of plants that exist independently of 
the active principle, it may add to the interest of this statement 
to enumerate the experiments that have been made to ascer- 
tain them. 
1st. A concentrated decoction of the plant was treated with 
ferrocyanuret of potassium, bichloride of mercury, iodine, and 
solution of gelatin, without producing any alteration, and 
hence it contains neither vegetable albumen, starch, nor tannin. 
2d. When the subacetate of lead is added, a precipitate, 
the compound of oxide of lead and gum, immediately is sepa- 
rated. 
3d. A portion of the plant was subjected to distillation with 
water: the product was devoid of taste, but had a very slight 
odor, so that volatile oil, if a constituent, exists in very- 
minute quantity. 
4th. Half an ounce of the plant was macerated in four ounces 
of alcohol, 36° Baume, for three days ; part of this tincture 
was subjected to distillation till half reduced, the residue was 
mixed with twice its bulk of water, when a copious precipi- 
tate of green resin and chlorophylle resulted, which was sepa- 
rated by a filter. The distilled liquid, which was nearly pure 
alcohol, had very little if any odor that did not belong to that 
fluid. 
5th. A portion of the plant was macerated in sulphuric 
ether, and the ethereal tincture evaporated; the residue was 
vol. v. — NO. IV. 36 
