118 A COMPENDIUM OF 
poisonous, and was well known to the ancient 
practitioners of medicine. Its common names 
are derived from the shape of the flower; its 
Latin name from Aconi, the place where it was 
first found. There are many varieties of the 
plant which closely resemble the officinal; it is 
said the aconitum paniculatum furnishes much 
of the aconite of commerce. See U. S. Dispen- 
Satory, page 108, 17th Ed. The leaves of the 
aconite are sometimes used, and will be men- 
tioned under their own proper head. 
Allium, Garlic Allium Sativum.—Natural 
order Liliacee. This plant or herb is a native 
of Asia and cultivated in Southern Europe; but. 
found very profusely growing in all the old pas- 
ture lands of the United States. The leaves of 
the garlic are grassy or rush like in appearance, 
4 to 6 inches high, forming a sheath for the 
stem, which has at its summit a cluster of 
small, white flowers. The European garlic is 
considered by some an entirely distinct species 
from that growing in this country. It is cer- 
tainly of finer flavor, but this may be due to 
the soil and climatic influence. The garlic as 
found in commerce is a small bulb, sub-globular 
in form, with many compressed bulblets ar- 
ranged around the base. The odor is pungent, 
and not agreeable to many; taste, warm and 
acrid ; contains, according to recent analysis, 
3° OF 40 per cent of muctlage; the two remain- 
ing constituents are albumen and oil; to the 
latter it owes its pungency. The radicle of this 
oil is an ether termed allyl. There are many 
varieties of garlic, differing from the true 
Allium Sativum, and it requires something of 
