Jacob's Ladder (Polemonium cæruleum), a herbaceous perennial plant of the natural order Polemoniaceæ, common in the centre and south of Europe, and found also in the temperate parts of Asia and North America. It has a smooth stem 1½ to 2 feet high, and a terminal panicle of bright blue (sometimes white) flowers, with wheel-shaped 5-lobed corolla. Great medicinal virtues were once ascribed to it, but the only quality which it seems to possess is a slight astringency.
Jacob's Ladder
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 6: Humber to Malta, p. 265
Source scan(s): p. 0280