ACONI'TUM NAPEL'LUS, 
monk’s-hood. 
Class. Order. 
POLYANDRIA. TR1GYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
RANUNCULACE.*. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Cultivated 
Europe. 
4 feet. 
July, Aug. 
Perennial . 
in 1596. 
No. 210. 
The word Aconitum is now of uncertain deriva- 
tion, it having originated with the Greeks at a very 
early period of their history. The Greek word 
aconitos, signifying without dust, is its usually 
received parent; but this preference rests princi- 
pally on the authority of Ovid, in his Metamor- 
phoses, who says it grows on rocks devoid of soil. 
Theophrastus believed that it took its name from 
Aconse a town in Bithynia, near which it grew in 
abundance. Napellus, the diminutive of Napus, is 
from the plant, which first received this appellation, 
having a bulb like napus. The origin of monk’s- 
hood is evident, from the shape of its flowers. 
Pliny, the younger, has transmitted to us some 
curious ideas respecting the Aconitum of the Greeks; 
but there is no proof that any plant known by mo- 
dern botanists under such appellation, is that to which 
such potent effects are attributed. The knowledge 
of early ages was, unfortunately, so much mixed up 
with fable and wonder, that it is now difficult to ap- 
preciate, correctly, the value of their assertions, or 
justly to estimate what portion of merit may be due 
to many of their discoveries. 
