250 THE SHAKESPEARE GARDEN 



A weed by sorcerers renowned 

 The strongest constitution to compound 

 Called aconite, because it can unlock 

 All bars and force its passage through a rock. 



In Greece it was also known as Wolf's-bane (Lycoc- 

 tonuvi), and it was thought that arrow-heads rubbed 

 with it would kill wolves. Turner quaintly writes 

 in his "Herbal" (1568): 



"This of all poisons is the most hastie poison, 

 howbeit Pliny saith this herb will kill a man if he 

 take it, except it find in a man something to kill. 

 Let our Londoners which have of late received this 

 blue Wolf's-bane, otherwise called Monk's Cane, 

 take heed that the poison of the root of this herb do 

 not more harm than the freshness of the flower hath 

 done pleasure. Let them not say but they are 

 warned." 



Parkinson's name for it is Napellus verus flore 

 cceruleo (Blue Helmet-Flower, or Monk's-hood). 



"The Helmet Flower," he writes, "hath divers 

 leaves of a fresh green color on the upper side and 

 grayish underneath, much spread abroad and cut 

 into many slits and notches. The stalk riseth up 

 two or three foot high, beset to the top with the 

 like leaves, but smaller. The top is sometimes di- 

 vided into two or three branches, but more usually 



