RANUNCULACE. 65 
stalk or claw curved, lamina nearly horizontal, recurved at the free 
apex ; spur short, slightly recurved, forming a rounded knob at the 
apex of the claw ; lower petals often absent. Carpels divergent 
when young. 
In shady places by the banks of streams. Rare, but apparently 
wild in Somerset ; Denbigh ; near Leominster, Herefordshire ; near 
Newton, Devon; and in Monmouthshire. It also occurs in other 
localities, where its adventitious origin is almost certain. 
England, [Scotland]. Perennial. Late Summer, Autumn. 
Root black, sending up a single stem, which is from 2 to 3 feet 
high. Leaves alternate, on short stalks slightly dilated at the base, 
pentagonal in outline, palmately 3- or 5-partite, with the segments 
deeply cut, or having narrow projecting lobes. Raceme terminal, 
simple, or with a few branches at the base. Bracts small. Bracteoles 
near the flower, entire. Pedicels erect, downy, bearing dark pur- 
plish-blue, horizontal flowers, 1 to 1} inch in their greatest diameter. 
Helmet compressed, semicircular, crescent-shaped in profile. Lateral 
sepals roundish-obovate, lowest ones lanceolate. Filaments dilated at 
the base. Anthers blackish green. Pistils 3, usually at first diverg- 
ing. Follicles fuscous, connivent, about # inch long, sub-cylindrical, 
truncate at the apex, tipped by the persistent style, which forms a 
beak about one-third the length of the rest of the carpel. Seeds 
nearly black, with an uneven spongy testa. Plant slightly hairy. 
Leaves dark green, shining above, much paler beneath. Sepals and 
carpels slightly hairy. The two upper petals may be compared to 
those of Aquilegia, if we suppose the latter to have claws much 
elongated and arched. 
A very variable species, containing several sub-species, which, 
however, pass insensibly into each other, and of which no satisfac- 
tory characters have yet been given. 
Common Wolfsbane, Aconite, or Monkshood. 
French, Aconit. German, Hisenhut, Sturmhut. 
Tlfe generic name of this plant is variously supposed to be derived from axovrioy 
(akontion), a dart, because used by barbarous nations to poison their arrows; or from axovn 
(akone), cliffy, rocky, because the species grow in rocky places. The specific name Napellus 
signifies a little turnip, in allusion to the shape of its roots. This species of Aconite is 
very generally cultivated in gardens. Doubts are entertained as to the identity of the 
species first used in medicine by Stéreck, a German physician, in 1762. The London 
Pharmacopeeia recognizes our present species Napellus as the one from which all tinctures 
and extracts are to be prepared. All the species of the genus contain an active principle 
known by the name of aconitine, one of the most formidable poisons which haye yet 
been discovered. It is combined in the plant with an organic acid called aconitie 
scid, and exists in all parts of the plant, but especially in the roots. The smallest 
K 
