ACONITE. MONK'S-HOOD. FRIAR'S-CAP. BLUEWEED.
Aconitum Columbianum, Nutt. Buttercup or Crowfoot Family.
Stems.—Two to six feet high. Leaves.—Alternate; palmately three- to five-cleft, three to five inches across. Flowers.—From blue to almost white; in a terminal cluster. Sepals.—Five; petaloid; very irregular; the upper one helmet-shaped. Petals.—Two to five; the upper two stamen-like, concealed within the helmet; the lower three minute or obsolete. Stamens.—Numerous. Filaments short. Pistils.—Usually three; becoming divergent follicles. Syn.—A. Fischeri, Reichb. Hab.—The Sierras and the northern Coast Ranges.
The blossoms of the monk's-hood, or aconite, may be found with those of the tall blue larkspur and the little alpine lily along our mountain streams in late summer. Owing to the shape of the upper sepal, these flowers have received several of their common names, such as "helmet-flower," "friar's-cap," and "monk's-hood."
The genus Aconitum has been known from remote times and noted for the poisonous qualities of its species. From the roots and leaves of A. napellus, the officinal species, supposed to be native of Britain, is made the powerful drug, aconite. Our own species is also poisonous, and among the mountaineers it is called "blueweed," and remembered only for its disastrous effect upon their sheep, who are sometimes driven to eat it when other feed is scare. The helmet varies greatly in breadth and length.
[MONK'S-HOOD—Aconitum Columbianum.]
![[MONK'S-HOOD—Aconitum Columbianum.]](#3624944100741987669_f127.png.id-6036880527311300287.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}