I. RANUNCULACEiE. 



23 



sow itself. It differs chiefly from icefield L. in its long dense spike, 

 its shorter spur, and in some marks at the base of the united petals, 

 which have been compared to the letters A I A I, whence the name of 

 D. Ajacis, Some larger perennial species are also cultivated in flower- 

 gardens. 



XII. ACONITE. ACONITUM. 



Perennial herbs, with much divided leaves, the segments palmate. 

 Sepals 5, coloured, the upper one helmet-shaped, the two lateral ones 

 broader than the two lower. Petals 2 to 5, concealed within the calyx, 

 the two upper ones forming small and irregular spurred bodies, on 

 long stalks within the upper sepal, the three lower very small and 

 linear, or wanting. Stamens numerous. Carpels 3 to 5, each with seve- 

 ral seeds. 



A natural genus, consisting chiefly of mountain plants, spread over 

 the greater part of Europe and central Asia, represented also in north- 

 ern America by a very few species. 



1. Common Aconite. Aconitum Wapellus, Linn. (Fig. 29.) 

 (Eng. Bot. Suppl. t. 2730. Aconite, Monkshood, or Wolfsbane.) 



Stem firm and erect, 1\ to 2 feet high. 

 Leaves stalked, or the upper ones nearly 

 sessile, of a dark green, glabrous or 

 slightly downy, divided to the base into 

 5 or 7 deeply cut, linear, pointed seg- 

 ments. Flowers large, dark blue, on 

 erect pedicels, forming a handsome, 

 dense, terminal raceme. The upper 

 helmet-shaped sepal at first conceals the 

 lateral ones, but is ultimately thrown 

 back. Spur of the small upper petals 

 short, conical, and more or less bent 

 downwards. Carpels 3, often slightly 

 united at the base. 



In moist pastures and thickets and 

 waste places, in mountainous districts, 

 in central and southern Europe and 

 Russian and central Asia, extending &' 



northward into Scandinavia. In Britain perhaps only an introduced 

 plant, but apparently wild in some shady places in western England 

 and south Wales. Fl, summer. 



