lobelia
(ləʊˈbiːlɪə)
[mod.L., f. name of Matthias de Lobel (1538–1616), botanist and physician to James I: see -ia.]
a. A genus of herbaceous (rarely shrubby) plants, typical of the family Lobeliaceæ, of which many species are cultivated for the beauty of their flowers, which are chiefly blue, scarlet, or purple; they are widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions and characterized by a deeply-cleft corolla without a spur; a plant of this genus, or its flower.
| 1739 P. Miller Gardeners Dict. II. s.v., Lobelia frutescens.. Shrubby Lobelia, with a purslane Leaf. 1855 Haliburton Nat. & Hum. Nat. II. 114 He foamed at the mouth like a hoss that has eat lobelia in his hay. 1874 C. Geikie Life in Woods xiv. 223 The scarlet lobelia. |
b. In the Pharmacopœia, the herb L. inflata.
| 1849 N. Kingsley Diary (1914) 94 Lobelia is the great cure, but some are against it. 1858 Copland Dict. Pract. Med. III. i. 404 In doses exceeding fifteen or twenty grains, the Lobelia causes speedy and severe vomiting. 1868 Daily News 30 July, He had poisoned a dog with lobelia, and it died 48 hours after. 1875 H. C. Wood Therap. (1879) 525 Lobelia is used only when the inflammatory action is complicated with [etc.]. |