104 PLANTS GROWING IN MOIST SOIL. 
of the fine small leaves. The plant is also an interesting study 
from the difference in the pistillate and staminate blossoms. 
MONKSHOOD. WOLF’S BANE, FRIAR’S CAP. 
(Plate XZLVI/71,) 
Aconitum uncinatum. 
FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 
Crowfoot. Blue purple. Scentless. Virginia, northward JS une-September. 
to New Jersey. 

Flowers; growing on upcurved pedicels in loose panicles. Calyx: of five 
sepals strangely fashioned like a monk’s hood. The helmet, one and a half 
inches long, broad and high, with turned-down vizor. Corolla: of two small 
petals that look like chin-tabs. /ystz/s: three to five. Leaves: on petioles; 
parted into three to five lobes. Svem: slender, bending at the top. oot: 
tuberous; containing a virulent poison. 
We cannot grieve over the irregularity of feature of this 
flower, as it affords us an excellent study of one that is un- 
symmetrical, and delights us by the way in which it represents 
a monk’s hood. Somewhere we imagine it has hidden a mis- 
chievous face that is longing to cast an eye out at the merry 
forbidden world. For we cannot believe much in its piety, it 
has had too varied an experience and has roved about in too 
many lands. 
In Norse mythology, it is credited with the power of making 
one invisible at will, and is called Odin’s helm, or Thor’s hat. 
It was when the Benedictines invaded the domain of Thor that 
it became monkshood. The Dutch term is friar’s cap; and in 
Germany it belongs exclusively to the devil, and is called 
devil’s herb. It has been on most intimate terms with all the 
ancients, and witches have even used it for concocting their 
wicked spells. Our own Indians call it ativisha, the supreme 
poison ; and children, who are really the wise-acres of the gen- 
eration, pluck from it its petals and fancy that the remaining 
bloom and exposed nectaries resemble a car drawn by doves. 
It isthen called Venus’s chariot. 

