770 ACONITUM. [CLASS XIII. ORDER II. 



soft close pubescence. Leaves alternate, sessile, the lower ones some- 

 times with a slender footstalk, three cleft, and with numerous narrow 

 linear subdivisions, smooth, or clothed with close pubescence. Inflo- 

 rescence terminal racemes, of a few flowers^ on pedicles longer than the 

 linear hracteas. Calyx of five oblong petal-like segments, mostly 

 greenish at the back, blue or purple within the upper one, with a long 

 straight or slightly curved spur at the base, mostly downy. Petals all 

 united into an irregular cleft hood, purple or flesh colour. iStamens 

 numerous, with thin dilated membranous filaments towards the base. 

 Anthers roundish ovate, of two cells. Style short. Stigma simple. 

 Capsule single, ovate oblong, pointed, single celled, bursting laterally, 

 smooth, or clothed with pubescence. Seeds numerous, angular, and 

 irregularly compressed, rough, with rows of membranous scales. 



Habitat. — Sandy or chalky fields; Sufi'olk, Kent, Cambridgeshire; 

 /S, Thorp Arch, near Leeds, Yorkshire, in corn fields. — Mr. Heaton. 



Annual ; flowering in June and July. 



The Larkspur is a favourite border flower, of great beauty, and pro- 

 duces flowers varying in colour from dark purple to pale blue, red, 

 and pale pink, sometimes white, and also variegated ; and by cultiva- 

 tion in a rich loamy soil the stamens expand into petals, and form 

 numerous flowered close spike-like racemes, of great beauty. Besides 

 this, many beautiful exotic species are cultivated in our gardens, and 

 perhaps this is not a native but naturalized species. 



GENUS XI. ACONITUM.— Linn. WolJ's-bane. 

 Nat. Ord. Randncula'ce^. De Cand. 

 Gen. Char. Calyx petaloid, of five coloured pieces, irregular, the 

 upper segment helmet-shaped. Petals five, the two upper ones 

 on long claws, nectariferous, and concealed within the calyx, the 

 others small, linear. Capsules from two to six, many seeded. — 

 Name from, it is said, Acone^ a town in Bithynia. 

 1. A. Napellus, Linn. (Fig. 873.) Common Wolf's-bane, orMonlCs- 

 hood. Flowers in a dense spike, or lax panicle ; upper calyx piece 

 arched at the back ; the two upper petals with a conical bent necta- 

 riferous spur at the base ; filaments mostly dilated ; germens three to 

 five, smooth or hairy ; leaves pinnatifid, with linear wedge-shaped 

 segments. 



English Botany, Supp. t. 2730.— English Flora, vol. iii. p. 31. — 

 Hooker, British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 216. — A. vulgare. — Lindley, 

 Synopsis, p. 13. 



Root tapering. Stem erect, simple, from three to four feet high, 

 rounded, smooth, or scattered over with hairs, leafy, terminating in a 

 dense spike or cluster of mostly numerous flowers, of a dark purplisl 



