AND ORNAMENTAL TREATMENT. 45 



active principle of this plant is the most deadly known, not even excepting hydrocyanic acid. All 

 chance of accidental poisoning can be at once removed if the roots of supposed horse-radish are, 

 after scraping, allowed to have free exposure to the air for a short time ; if they are really horse- 

 radish, little or no change of colour is seen, while, if Monk's-hood, they will speedily turn of a 

 pinkish-brown colour. 



During our Indian wars, the wells and tanks have been repeatedly poisoned on the advance 

 of our army, by throwing bruised aconite root into them ; the natives of India also use a prepara- 

 tion of the plant to poison arrows with, when hunting the tiger and other wild beasts ; — an 

 application of its powers that has been in vogue since very ancient times, hence the name Wolfs- 

 bane, and the generic term Aconitum, derived from the Greek word for a dart, in allusion to its 

 use in rendering still more deadly the weapons of war or of the chase. 



The Monk's-hood has a firm and erect stem, from eighteen inches to three feet high ; the 

 leaves are stalked, though those on the upper part of the plant are so slightly so as to appear 

 almost sessile ; all the leaves are of a dark bluish-green, and very glossy in appearance, divided into 

 three, five, or seven deeply-cut segments, the upper ones being of much simpler outline than the 

 lower. The inflorescence is racemose, the flowers being large, and of a dark and sombre purple 

 hue. The calyx, by far the most conspicuous part of the blossom, is composed of five petaloid sepals ; 

 the upper one is semicircular, and from its form, and the way it closes over the others, resembles 

 a helmet or a monk's cowl ; the petals are two to five in number — two, of very abnormal petaloid 

 form, being contained beneath the hood of the upper sepal, the remaining petals, when present 

 (which is not always the case), being very small and narrow. The fruit (fig. 230), composed of 

 three to five carpels, is a quaint and not unornamental feature. 



The calyx, though in most cases resembling a little green cup (as in figs. 35, 81, 122, 144, 

 154, 165, 237, 275, and many other examples), is at times considerably altered both in form and 

 colour, and may thus prove more difficult of recognition, especially to the beginner. The sepals, 

 as we have seen already in some earlier remarks, sometimes fall away at the commencement of 

 flowering, the Corn Poppy is a good example of this ; sometimes at the conclusion, as in the 

 Buttercup, while at other times they are what is botanically termed persistent, and do not 

 drop off". In this case they either wither up after flowering, as in the Broom (fig. 97), 

 become fleshy, or, remaining foliaceous, grow larger, and are then said to be accrescent — ex. Winter 

 Cherry (Physalis Alkekengi). When the calyx is not green it is said to be coloured, since, 

 botanically, green in such a relationship is not held to be a colour. In all plants in which the 

 calyx and the corolla are so similar as to be unitedly termed the perianth, the sepaloid parts are 

 generally as brilliant in colour as the petaloid — ex. Crocus (fig. in), the White and Orange Lilies, 

 the Tulip, Crown-imperial, Daffodil, Snowdrop, and many others. In the Wolf's-bane, the calyx, 

 it may be seen, is purple, while in other plants it is white, crimson, yellow, orange, or blue. 



The forms assumed by the calyx are at times as varied as the colours, and as great a deviation 

 from the typical character; thus, in the Wolfs-bane, the irregular form of the calyx is surmounted 

 by a very large and cap-like sepal ; this form, from its resemblance to a helmet, is called galeate : in 

 the Primrose or Fuchsia, the calyx is tubular ; in the Chickweed, stellate ; and numerous other 

 examples might be added. In some plants the calyx is obviously composed of an aggregation of 

 distinct parts ; in others, from the growing together of these parts, the whole form seems composed 

 of one piece, as in the Soapwort (Saponaria officinalis). 



PLATE 29. 



* The soul and nature are attuned together. Something within answers to all we witness without. When I look on the 

 ocean in its might and tumult, my spirit is stirred, swelled. When it spreads out in peaceful blue waves, under a bright sky, it is 

 dilated yet composed. I enter into the spirit of the earth, and this is always good. Nature breathes nothing unkind. It expands, 

 or calms, or softens us. Let us open our souls to its influences."— Channing. 



The Yellow Rattle ( Rhinanthus crista-galli) is one of our common plants, being found, at 

 times in such abundance in pasture-land as to be really a nuisance to the farmer. It attains to a 

 height of one to two feet, the stem being sometimes simple, as in fig. 234, but more generally 

 branched (fig. 233) ; it is sometimes spotted with purple. The leaves are in pairs on the stem, 

 lanceolate in form, and coarsely toothed. The blossoms are arranged in a loosely spicate manner, 

 springing from the axils of the floral leaves, calyx inflated and four-toothed, as shown in figs. 237, 

 238, enlarged views of the flower as seen from the side and from above. After the flower has 

 fallen, and during the ripening of the seeds, the calyx continues to increase in size ; the lower 

 forms', as will be seen in our plate, being much larger than the upper and more recently developed 



