718 
ON PLANTS IN RELATION TO ANIMALS. 
strayed from the garden—it may be from the physic garden 
of the anchorite or some monastic order, which seems pro¬ 
bable, for, as a rule, they were much grown in such estab¬ 
lishments. 
Mrs. Lankester tells us that “ in Brown’s f British Pas¬ 
torals ; we have it recorded that in former times a columbine 
was the insignia of deserted lovers, but how this originated 
does not appear. 
c The columbine, by lonely wand’rer taken, 
Is then ascribed to such as are forsaken.’ 
The whole plant used to be recommended medicinally, but 
it belongs to a suspicious natural order, and Linnaeus asserts 
that children have lost their lives by taking an overdose 
of it * 
At present even the rustic does not use the columbine as 
a medicine, though at one time its leaves, flowers, and seeds 
had each their advocates as {f sovereign remedies.” 
2. The Delphinium is derived, according to Sir W. Hooker, 
from Delphinus , or § e\(pLv , a dolphin , on account of the 
shape of the upper sepal. 
The D. consolida is occasionally found in corn fields, espe¬ 
cially in Cambridgeshire. It occurs plentifully in the Chan¬ 
nel Islands. It is frequently met with in most arable dis¬ 
tricts, where, however, it seldom becomes even naturalised 
although it is being constantly introduced in foreign seeds. 
Dr. Lynn has introduced two forms in the New Plora, under 
the names of D. Ajacis and D. consolida , the former being 
a larger and more conspicuous form, and is the one usually 
met with as a garden annual; the latter is smaller in all its 
parts, but we cannot consider them as distinct species, as both 
are very variable, both in size and in colour, taking on, in the 
latter respect, the usual changes of most blue-flowered plants. 
A species is sometimes grown in the garden, which produces 
quite large seeds, which latter are known to the druggist as 
stavesacre seeds, upon which we quote the following :— 
“ D. staphisagria, or stavesacre, was used medicinally by 
the Greeks, and still finds a place in the Pharmacopoeia, 
though now rarely employed. The seeds contain the active 
principle in great abundance, and hence are ordered to be 
used in the form of ointment to destroy vermin. 
“ Delphinia is an extremely acrid, bitter, white powder, pre¬ 
pared from the seeds, and used externally in cases of rheu¬ 
matism and neuralgia. Numerous species and varieties of 
this genus are cultivated in gardens. D. consolida , a com- 
* ‘ English Botany,’ vol. i, p. 61. 
