LAEKSPTTB P^ONY. 21 



dangerous to the eyesight, and many parents will not suffer 

 it in their gardens for fear of the small seeds being blown into 

 the eyes of the children. A medicine is formed from the 

 Aconite poison ; but it is chiefly used externally. Its bene- 

 ficent effects are best understood by the homoeopathists : in 

 their hands it allays fever, procures sleep, and thus alleviates 

 much human suffering (Aconitum napellus, Plate I., fig. 10). 



The Larkspur (Delphinium consolida), is occasionally found 

 in corn fields. It is also without a calyx, and has five petals, 

 and a nectary containing poisonous honey. Its form is light 

 and graceful, and its leaves narrow and much-divided. There 

 are many handsame species of Larkspur cultivated in gardens 

 one with a single crowded spike and double blossoms, the 

 colour of which was purple ; pink, grey, or white used to be 

 much in vogue, and, planted in lines, always reminded me of 

 Lombardy Poplars. The rich blue species now in fashion for 

 ribbon-borders, &c., are perennial, and far exceed in beauty 

 those prized in years past. 



But the king of the order is the wild Pa3ony (Pseonia coral- 

 lina), the stately ornament of the island called the Steep 

 Holmes, in the mouth of the Severn. Fanny would have got 

 a specimen if it had been possible, and to that intent she was 

 eager to join an excursion from Clevedon to the island in 

 question, the only known habitat of this noble plant ; but great 

 was her disappointment when she found that the owner strictly 

 forbade the gathering of a single flower ! So I fear the 

 crimson beauty must continue absent from our collection. 

 Our gorgeous garden Pseonies are most of them mere double 

 varieties of this hero of the Steep Holmes, and the tree Pseony 

 is another species of the same family. In the Crimea, Hooker 

 states that the seed of the Pseony is surrounded by a red pulp, 

 the juice of which affords a beautiful purple dye. 



This family completes the Banunculacese order. 



