MEDICINAL PART. The leaves.
    Description. -- This rough plant has a stem about one foot high. The radical leaves ovate, cordate; cauline one, ovate and sessile. Flowers, blue; calyx, five-angled; corolla, funnel-shaped; stigma, emarginate; and the fruit a roundish, obtuse achenium. (See Illustration, page 16.)
    History. -- Lungwort is a herbaceous perennial, growing in Europe and this country in northern latitudes. In Europe it is a rough-leaved plant, but in this country the entire plant is smooth, which exhibits the peculiar climatic influence. It is showy, and freely cultivated. It flowers in May. The leaves are used for medical purposes. They are without any particular odor. Water extracts their properties.
    Properties and Uses. -- It is demulcent and mucilaginous, and in decoction very useful in bleeding from the lungs, and bronchial and catarrhal affections, and other disorders of the respiratory organs. Its virtues seem to be entirely expended upon the lungs, and it is certainly an efficacious remedial agent for all morbid conditions of these organs. It is an ingredient in the "Acacian Balsam," see page 469.