BOTANY AS APPLIED TO VETERINARY SCIENCE. 
By W. Watson, M.R.C.V.S., Rugby. 
(Continued from p. 24.) 
Having given a brief outline of the botanical characters 
of the natural order Ranunculaceae, I purpose now bringing 
under notice, in detail, those plants belonging to the order 
which possess features of interest to the veterinary surgeon. 
The first plant I shall proceed to describe is one which has 
recently been brought before the public as the poisonous 
agent by which the murderer Hunt destroyed his own life 
—viz., the Aconitum napellus or Monkshood. The following 
are its chief botanical characters —Aconitum napellus [Monks¬ 
hood). “Stem, leafy, erect, about three feet high. Leaves 
divided palmately into many narrow lobes. Flowers in nearly 
simple racemes, downy. Sepals , five petal-like, very irre¬ 
gular, the upper one being covex and compressed. Petals , 
two, hooded with a curved stalk, horizontal; three others 
very small, scale-like, often wanting. Carpels , three to five, 
many-seeded. Seeds , three-cornered, with many plaited 
wrinkles at the back.”— Lindley . This plant has been 
known from a very early period, and was considered by 
the ancients to be the most powerful amongst vegetable 
poisons. It is a doubtful native of this country, having been 
probably introduced from the woody parts of Germany, 
France, and Switzerland, on account of its medicinal value. 
There are several varieties of this plant to be met with 
growing in our flower-gardens and shrubberies, all possessing 
more or less the same characters. The tubers (commonly 
called the root) of the Aconitum napellus are from three to 
four inches long, tapering in form, somewhat resembling the 
napus or navel, the French turnip, from which it derives 
its name, of a pale brown colour externally and white and 
fleshy internally. Fatal consequences have resulted from 
this root having been mistaken for horse-radish [Cochlearia 
armoriacia ), although the difference in colour, taste, and 
odour, should at once point out the distinction. The leaves, 
which appear in patches about the middle of February, are 
of a bright-green colour, deeply lancinated and placed alter¬ 
nately on the stem, which attains an height of from two to 
four feet. The flow r ers, which appear about the middle of 
June, are of a deep violet colour and slightly covered with 
down. It is from the resemblance of the upper sepal to a 
