G4 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
shorter, and all entire. Carpel quite glabrous, reddish brown, 
about half as long as that of C. Ajacis, and much more abruptly 
truncate at the apex. Style longer. Seeds with the transverse 
ridges broken up into rows of scales. 
Wild Larkspur. 
French, Dauphinelle des Champs. German, Feld-Rittersporn. 
The specific name comes from the Latin word consolido, to make sound. 
‘he expressed juice of the petals mixed with a little alum makes a tolerable blue 
ink. The seeds partake of the acrid and poisonous qualities of the genus. Portions of 
the plant are said to enter into the composition of those French cosmetics which are so 
detrimental to the skin. It was formerly admitted into the European Pharmacopeias. 
GENUS XT77.—ACONITUM. Linn. 
Sepals 5, unequal, petaloid, deciduous, the uppermost one 
helmet-shaped, the others slightly concave, the lowest pair the 
narrowest. Petals 2 to 5, the two upper included within the 
helmet-shaped sepal, with very long stalk-like claws, the lamina of 
the petal much shorter than the claw, with the inner surface of 
which it forms an acute angle, the base produced backwards into a 
more or less recurved hollow spur, which appears a continuation of 
the claw; the three lower petals very small, resembling abortive 
stamens, frequently obsolete. Carpels 3 to 5, sessile, becoming at 
maturity dehiscent follicles, not connate at the base. 
Perennial herbaceous plants, with enlarged fleshy fusiform 
tubers, composed of root and rootstock combined into one, increas- 
ing by giving off short, thick, lateral shoots, at the extremity of 
which a new tuber is produced similar to the parent one. Stem 
erect, with alternate, palmately-lobed or -cut leaves. Racemes 
terminal, simple, or combined in panicles. 
SPECIES I—ACONITUM NAPELLUS. Linn. 
Pratt XLVIIL* 
Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ. et Helv. Vol. IV. Ran. Tab. LXXVI. & LXXVIL; also Tab. 
LXXXVIII. to XCIX. Fig. 4694 to 4710. 
Raceme very long, simple, or slightly branched at the base. 
Helmet-sepal arched, with a peak in front. Upper petals with the 
* The plate given is E. B. 2730, with the figure of the root added by Mr. J. E. 
Sowerby. 
