ACONITUM. 771 



blue, scentless. Leaves numerous, allernate, with channeled footstalks, 

 pinnatifid, with wedge-shaped lobes and linear segments, dark green 

 above, pale beneath, scattered over with hairs, or smooth. Bracteas 

 small, linear. Calyx of five irregular unequal pieces, petaloid, the 

 upper one large, helmet-shaped, arched at the back, the lateral ones 

 roundish, wedge-shaped, hairy within, the two inferior, oblong. Petals 

 very irregular, the two upper ones on long awl-shaped claws, enclosed 

 in the hood of the calyx, nectariferous, oblique at the mouth, elongated 

 into a conical recurved spur at the base. Stamens numerous, with 

 incurved filaments^ mostly dilated in membranous wings towards the 

 base, the upper ones sometimes without anthers. Germens from three 

 to five, oblong, smooth, oblique at the point, with a terminal awl- 

 shaped style and simple stigma. Capsules ovate oblong, pointed with 

 the persistent style, one celled, bursting laterally, many seeded. Seeds 

 angular, rough. 



Habitat. — " Side of the river Teme, Herefordshire. — Bev. Edtvard 

 Whitehead. Very abundant on the banks of a stream at Ford, near 

 Wiveliscombe, Somersetshire, where it continues along the stream at 

 intervals to Milverton, a distance of three miles." — Mr. Clark. Below 

 Staverton Bridge, Devon. — Mr. Tozer. About Mylor Bridge, Corn- 

 wall. — Miss Warren. Several places in Denbighshire. — J. JS. Bow- 

 man, Esq. 



Perennial ; flowering in June and July. 



This is probably not a native but naturalized plant with us. It is 

 not unfrequent on the Continent, as well as some other species. 

 Virgil, in his Georgics, praising Italy, says, after naming other inju- 

 rious productions which are not natives of Italy — 



Nor pois'nous aconite is here produced, 



Or grows unknown, or is, when known, refus'd. 



It is an extremely variable plant in its characters, especially in the 

 disposition of its flowers, the form of the calyx helmet, and the shape 

 of its leaves. De Candolle, in his Prodromus 1. p. 62. enumerates 

 twenty-nine varieties. 



All the species of Aconitum are more or less poisonous, and rank 

 among the most powerful vegetable poisons that are known; they were 

 the terror of the ancients. All parts of the plant is possessed of the 

 deliterious property. The odour of the flowers are reported to have 

 caused swooning fits, and blindness that has lasted for several days, 

 and various cases are recorded of persons having been killed by eating 

 the leaves. In the roots, however, this poisonous property is much the 

 most virulent, two drachms of which are stated by Matthiolus to have 

 caused the death of a criminal. The poisonous property of Aconitum 

 resides in a peculiar alkali in combination with some vegetable acid, 

 the nature of which does not seem to have been determined. " This 

 alkali (called Aconitina) is in the highest degree poisonous ; the 50th 



