Medicinal plants -- United States; Weeds -- Therapeutic use -- United States
The price paid for the leaves ranges from 2½ to 5 cents per pound, and
that for the flowers may range from 25 to 75 cents per pound.
LOBELIA.
_Lobelia inflata_ L.
[Illustration: FIG. 15.—Lobelia (_Lobelia inflata_ L.).]
=Other common names.=—Indian tobacco, wild tobacco, bladder pod, asthma
weed, gagroot, pukeweed, vomitwort, low belia, eyebright. (Fig. 15.)
=Range and habitat.=—This poisonous weed occurs nearly everywhere
throughout the United States, being most plentiful east of the
Mississippi River, and thriving in dry, clayey, or siliceous soil in
sunny situations along roadsides, and in old fields and pastures.
=Description.=—The erect leafy stem of this annual herbaceous plant
is from 1 to 3 feet high, from a fibrous root. It is simple and
rough-hairy below, smooth above, and bears a few short branches.
The entire plant contains an acrid milky juice. It belongs to the
bellflower family (Campanulaceæ).
The pale-green leaves are alternate, from 1 to 2½ inches long,
gradually diminishing in size as they reach the summit of the plant,
the lower leaves being borne on stalks, while the upper ones are
stemless. They are thin, oblong or oval, blunt, irregularly toothed,
and almost wavy, with short hairs on both surfaces.
From July until frost the rather inconspicuous, very small pale-blue
flowers appear. These are very numerous, each one borne in the axils
of the upper leaves on very short stems, all together forming a long,
spike-like head. The lower lip of the flower has three lobes, the upper
one two segments, and from the center of the latter the tube of the
flower is cleft to the base. The seed pods are in the form of inflated
capsules, nearly globular, striated (grooved or marked with parallel
lines), and contain very numerous minute dark-brown seeds.
=Parts used.=—The leaves and flowering tops are used in medicine, and
there is also a good demand for the seed. The leaves and tops should be
gathered after some of the pods have become inflated, should be dried
in the shade, and when dry kept in covered vessels. The dried leaves
and tops have a rather disagreeable, somewhat sickening odor, and the
taste, though mild at first, soon becomes strongly acrid and nauseous.
The seeds are extremely minute, and each capsule is said to contain
from 450 to 500 seeds.
Lobelia is an expectorant, acts upon the nervous system and bowels,
causes vomiting, and is poisonous.
=Price.=—The price paid for the dried leaves and tops ranges from 3 to
8 cents per pound, and that for the seed from 15 to 20 cents per pound.
TANSY.
_Tanacetum vulgare_ L.
=Other common names.=—Bitter buttons, ginger plant, parsley fern,
scented fern. (Fig. 16.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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