MONKSHOOD (Aconitum columbianum, Nutt.). The char- 

 acteristic feature of the Aconitum flower is the one much 

 enlarged sepal shaped noticeably like a hood or helmet, which 

 all but extinguishes the much reduced petals. All five sepals 

 are colored. 



Aconitum columbianum is a handsome plant, 2 or 3 feet tall 

 (or higher under favorable conditions), blooming in July or 

 August; the robust flowers varying from a deep blue to white 

 in a loose raceme, the palmate leaves about 5-parted. It 

 affects moist meadows and stream banks in the higher moun- 

 tains, the Sierra Nevada and Northern Coast Ranges of Cali- 

 fornia, north to British Columbia, and eastward to Wyoming, 

 Colorado, and Arizona. The specific name has reference 

 to the Columbia River near the Washington-Oregon line, 

 where Thomas Nuttall, the discoverer, collected his type 

 specimens. 



Our species is a true cousin of Aconitum Napellus, of the Old 

 World, the plant from which the medicine Aconite is made, 

 and is poisonous both in root and leaf. Sheepmen on the 

 Pacific Slope know it by the prosaic name of Blue-weed, and 

 have dread of it, as it has the reputation of poisoning sheep if 

 they eat it. 



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