2 PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
The plant here named as being as powerful in its action as 
gunpowder is the Aconitum Napellus (the Wolf’s-bane or 
Monk’s-hood). It is a member of a large family, all of which 
are more or less poisonous, and the common Monk’s-hood as 
much so as any. Two species 
are found in America, but, for 
the most part, the family is con¬ 
fined to the northern portion of 
the Eastern Hemisphere, ranging 
from the Himalaya through 
Europe to Great Britain. It is 
now found wild in a few parts 
of England, but it is certainly not 
indigenous; it was, however, 
very early introduced into Eng¬ 
land, being found in all the 
English vocabularies of plants 
from the tenth century down¬ 
wards, and frequently men¬ 
tioned in the early English medical recipes. 
Its names are all interesting. In the Anglo-Saxon Vocab¬ 
ularies it is called thung, which, however, seems to have 
been a general name for any very poisonous plant ; 1 it was 
then called Aconite, as the English form of its Greek and 
1 “ Aconita, thung.” yElfric’s “Vocabulary,” ioth century. 
“ Aconitum , thung.” Anglo-Saxon Vocabulary, nth century. 
“ Aconita , thung.” “Durham Glossary of the names of Worts,” nth 
century. 
The ancient Vocabularies and Glossaries, to which I shall frequently 
refer, are printed in 
I. Wright’s “Volume of Vocabularies,” 1857, and 2nd Ed. by Wulcker, 
1884. 
II. “ Leeclidoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England,” by 
Rev. O. Cockayne, published under the direction of the Master of the 
Rolls, 3 vols., 1866. 
III. “ Profliptorium Parvulorum,” edited by Albert Way, and published 
by the Camden Society, 3 vols., 1843-65. 
IV. “Catholicon Anglicum,” edited by S. J. Ilerrtage, and published 
by the Early English Text Society, 1881, and by the Camden Society, 1882. 
