AC0N1TUM VERSIC OLOR. 
SHADED MONK’S-HOOD. 
Class. 
POLYANDRIA. 
Order. 
TRIG YNIA. 
Natural Order. 
RANUNCULACEJE. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Introduced 
Europe. 
3 feet. 
July, Aug. 
Perennial. 
in 1820. 
No. 436. 
The derivation of Aconitum cannot now be 
traced with certainty; ingenious etymologists have, 
consequently, multiplied the doubts by invention. 
Some think that the Greek word akon, signifying 
a dart, formed the root from whence it was deduced, 
because its poison was used upon darts to render 
them the more deadly. The name certainly was 
employed by the Greeks to distinguish a plant to 
which they attributed extraordinary virulence. See 
Aconitum napellus, No. 210. 
All the species of Aconitum should be regarded 
with suspicion, as highly poisonous, which some are 
well known to be, from respectably authenticated 
instances of death succeeding the use of them. 
Some persons discard all species of it from the 
garden. This would, to most florists, appear ra- 
ther fastidious, inasmuch as the English are not so 
passionately attached to vegetable diet, as to eat 
garden herbage indiscriminately. 
This species is of upright neat growth, and its 
flowers are ornamental ; particularly so when the 
root has become strong, and produces several 
stems. It may be increased by division. 
Loddig. Bot. Cab. 794. 
