[mod.L., f. name of Matthias de Lobel (1538–1616), botanist and physician to James I.: See -IA.] A genus of herbaceous (rarely shrubby) plants, typical of the N.O. 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.
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, 6/6. 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.].
