R a n 2inc2i lacece A c outturn . 



13. ACONITUM. 



Erect perennial poisonous herbs with palmately divided 

 leaves. Flowers in racemes or panicles, blue, purple, yellowish, 

 or white. Sepals 5, the dorsal or upper one helmet-shaped, 

 the two lateral broader than the two anterior. Petals 5, small, 

 the two upper with long claws hooded at the tip ; the three 

 inferior smaller or undeveloped. Carpels 3 to 5, sessile, 

 free, many-seeded. The classical name. There are about 

 twenty species, natives of the mountains of the north tempe- 

 rate zone. 



1. A. Napellus (fig. 16). Common Monkshood. This is 

 found in almost every old cottage garden. The typical form 

 has blue flowers, but there are several varie- 

 ties with white and blue flowers, differing 



in size and form. A widely distributed 

 plant throughout temperate Europe and 

 Asia. 



2. A. Lycoctonum. Wolfsbane. Very 

 distinct from the foregoing, attaining a 

 height of 6 or 7 feet, having large deeply 

 divided leaves and yellowish flowers. Like 

 the last, a Summer-flowering plant. Native 

 of the South of Europe. 



Zanthorhlza apii/oHa, Yellow-root, is a 

 dwarf shrubby plant from North America, 

 with pinnate or bipinnate leaves and panicled 

 racemes of drooping dull purple regular 

 flowers. Sepals 5. Petals 5, smaller than the 

 sepals, clawed. Hydrdstis Canadensis, 

 Orange-root, is an allied herbaceous perennial 

 with one large lobed radical leaf and two 

 smaller ones on the flower-scape, which bears 

 one small greenish flower destitute of petals. 

 Actcea spicata, Baneberry, is a native plant 

 of this affinity. It is a perennial, with F5g - 16 - ( f 

 ternately divided leaves and small racemose 

 flower succeeded by a several-seeded bluish-black berry. North 

 of England, and northern temperate regions generally. 



c 2 



