ACONITE 



193 



The plant should be cut when the flowers are beginning to expand, 

 and the leaves and flowering tops separated from the larger stalks ; 

 they are used for the preparation of the juice and green extract of 

 aconite. 



Description. The stem, which attains a height of about 1 metre 

 or more, is upright, smooth, and usually simple, terminating in a 

 leafy raceme of bluish flowers. 



The lower leaves are petiolate, radiately veined and deeply pal- 



FIG. 103. Aconite herb, a, leaf ; b, flower ; c, d, petals. 

 Three-fourths natural size. (Holmes.) 



matisected, the three primary divisions extending very nearly^ to 

 the petiole ; towards the upper part of the plant the petioles become 

 shorter and the lamina less divided. They are of a dark green colour 

 on the upper surface, paler beneath and glabrous, or nearly so. 



The flower is zygomorphous ; the calyx consists of five blue petaloid 

 sepals (fig. 103, 6), of which the upper (posterior) is shallow helmet- 

 shaped ; of the five petals, two only are easily found as hammer- 

 shaped nectaries (fig. 103, c) concealed within the helmet-shaped 

 upper sepal ; the other three are small and inconspicuous (fig. 103, d) ; 

 the stamens are numerous. The fruit consists of from three to five 

 divergent follicles. 



The plant has little odour, but produces slowly, when chewed, an 

 unpleasant, acrid, burning taste. 



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