424, NOTE ON ACONITUM NAPELLUS. 
ecclesiastical divisions; but our business here is with the unities 
and beauties of Nature, and therefore we forbear to enlarge upon 
the disagreeable themes of civil and religious strife, of which this 
little city has been the passive witness for centuries. 
As we commenced, strictly speaking, our botanical tour. at 
Dunblane,—for here we used the conveyance wherewith Nature 
bountifully provided us,—our readers may look for a more de- 
tailed account of our onward progress. 
z (To be continued.) 
Note on Aconitum Napellus. 
To the Editor of the ‘ Phytologist. 
Perhaps it may not be “ unseasonable” if I venture to express 
a strong conviction that the idea thrown out at page 364 of the 
June number of the ‘Phytologist’ respecting the innocuous nature 
of Aconitum Napellus in some countries, or under certain circum- 
stances, is altogether erroneous. The subject is an important 
one, and ought not to be lightly passed over. The name of Lin- 
neeus being introduced in connection with the subject, induces 
me in the first place to ask, whether there is any certain evidence 
of Aconitum Napellus occurring in Lapland. Linneus might 
doubtless say (in the passage referred to), “I noticed a woman 
in early spring gathering the leaves of this Aconite ;” and might 
record the fact of her “dining on Wolfsbane broth” in his pre- 
sence. But the question immediately presents itself, was “this 
Aconite’”’ Aconitum Napellus at all ? 
Linneus, in his ‘Species Plantarum,’ ed. 2, only mentions 
three countries in which 4. Napellus occurs, viz. ‘‘ Helvetia, Ba- 
varia, Gallia.”” No mention is there made of the existence of 
A. Napellus as a native of any part of Scandinavia. Knowing 
the notoriously poisonous character of Aconitum Napellus, Lin- 
nus might well be astonished at any Aconite being used as an 
article of diet, and especially one so closely allied to that species 
in appearance, when not in flower, as to be liable at first sight 
to be mistaken for it. 
During the summer of 1851, im company with my father, I 
visited Norway. On commencing a journey into the interior, 
we noticed a species of Aconitum abounding in the more open 
