MONKSHOODS 
follicles are frequently solitary. Fig. 1 is a section through flower; Fig. 
2 shows the curiously ribbed seed, natural size and enlarged; and Fig. 3 
is the seedling. 
Plate 11 is an example of the garden hybrid forms. 
MONKSHOODS 
Natural Order Ranunculace^e. Genus Aconitum 
Aconitum (the classical name). A genus of about twenty species of 
erect, perennial, poisonous herbs, natives of the mountains of the north 
temperate zone. Leaves palmately lobed and divided, alternate. 
Flowers white, yellow, purple, blue, in racemes or panicles, the anthers 
maturing before the stigmas. Sepals, five, large, coloured; the upper one 
developed into a great' vaulted hood. There are nominally five small 
petals, of which the two upper ones are hammer-shaped; these are 
hidden within the hood, but the three lower and smaller ones are entirely 
wanting in some species. The follicles vary from three to five. 
Whether Aconitum napettus, the common Monkshood, 
HiSt0ry ' be really a native of Britain or not, it appears certain that 
the large clumps sometimes met in woods and plantations are descendants 
of garden escapes. From the end of the sixteenth century several species 
and varieties have been introduced from abroad, and during the present 
century many more. Of the sixteenth century importations, which were 
brought from the mountainous districts of Europe, several have continued 
to hold a place as favourite border plants, such as A. Anthora , A. 
lycoctonum, A. napellus, and A. variegatum. It must be admitted 
that their presence in English gardens has not been an unalloyed 
pleasure, for they are among the most virulently poisonous of plants, 
and many deaths have occurred through eating the rootstock in mistake 
for horse-radish. It is not easy to understand how any person could 
make such a mistake, but the evidence that it has been done is conclusive. 
It should, therefore, only be planted where there can be no possibility of 
such an error being repeated; it should never find a place in those gardens 
where culinary vegetables hob-nob with ornamental flowering plants. 
Principal Species ^he g enera l appearance of the Aconitums there is 
P P e “‘ much to remind one of the Delphiniums: the stately habit, 
the divided leaves, the distinct form of the flowers, and the erect racemes, 
Like those, the Aconitums make fine imposing masses for beds or 
shrubbery borders, and they continue in blossom for six or eight weeks. 
