"HERBS OF GRACE" 249 



and that of gunpowder. "Though it do work as 

 strong as aconitum or rash gunpowder." Aconite 

 was supposed in Elizabethan days to be an antidote 

 against the most deadly poison. Ben Jonson in 

 "Se janus" makes one of his characters remark: 



I have heard that aconite 



Being timely taken hath a healing might 



Against the scorpion's sting. 2 



Lord Bacon in "Sylva" calls Napellus "the most 

 powerful poison of all vegetables." 



Yet despite its poisonous qualities, an English 

 garden lover writes, "the plant has always held, and 

 deservedly, a place among the ornamental plants 

 of our gardens; its stately habit and its handsome 

 leaves and flowers make it a favorite." 



The ancients, who were unacquainted with min- 

 eral poisons, regarded aconite as the most deadly of 

 all poisons and believed that Hecate had caused the 

 plant to spring from the venomous foam frothing 

 from the mouth of the three-headed dog, Cerberus, 

 when Hercules took him from Pluto's dark realm 

 on one of his Twelve Labors. Ovid describes the 

 aconite as 



1 Part II, Act IV, Scene IV. 

 3 Act III, Scene III. 



