aconitumn.

?a1450 tr. Macer Herbal (Stockh.) (1949) 151 Þis decoccion..doþ him good þat hauyþ dronkyn þe venym þat is clepid aconitum, and in þe same wise..it is god aȝein many oþer venemus.

1555 R. Eden in tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde sig. A. iii The iuyce of this roote is a poyson as strong as Aconitum, so that if it be dronke it causeth present death.

1587 B. Googe tr. A. Bertholdus Wonderfull & Strange Effect New Terra Sigillata 26 The other foure dogges..were very sicke and feeble, especially one of them to whom the double quantitie of Aconitum by negligence was giuen.

1711 J. Marten Treat. Venereal Dis. (ed. 7) i. 90 Medicines of so great force, are as likely and effectually to kill, as Aconitum or Arsenick, by either Ignorance in the preparing, or an Error in the Dose.

1761 W. Hillary Inq. Means improving Med. Knowl. 94 Dioscorides..at last was poisoned by taking a Dose of the Aconitum.

1841 H. Dunsford Pract. Advantages Homœopathy ii. 126 A dose of Aconitum was administered, and soon afterwards Belladonna, in solution.

1869 C. J. Hempel tr. B. Bæhr Sci. Therapeutics II. viii. 110 Aconitum is useful in catarrhs caused by exposure to a sharp and keen dry wind.

1996 S. Lavery et al. Hamlyn Encycl. Complementary Health 268/1 Aconitum when the eyes are gritty and swollen.

2001 C. Benard Turning on Girls 275 Someone has plundered his aftershave, spilled his bayberry, stolen his aconitum, and rummaged through his wardrobe.

1538 T. Elyot Dict. Aconitum, an herbe, wherein is mooste feruent poyson.]

1551 W. Turner New Herball sig. B.i^v The other kynde of Aconitum is deuided of Dioscorides into iii. sortes, of which I know ii. kyndes.

1562 W. Bullein Bk. Simples f. xlvj^v, in Bulwarke of Defence This herbe, the leafe or roote, beyng sodden and drunke, did preuaile and ouercome, the poisone of any venemous herbe, which any haue eaten ignorauntly. As Aconitum called Leopardes bane.

1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World II. xxvii. iii. 271 It groweth naturally upon bare and naked rockes, which the Greekes call Aconas: which is the reason (as some have said) why it was named Aconitum.

1613 T. Heywood Brazen Age ii. ii. 215 With Aconitum that in Tartar springs.

1702 R. Mead Mech. Acct. Poisons iii. 119 Most Notorious of These [plants] for Venonmous Juices among the Ancients were Cicuta and Aconitum.

1789 E. Darwin Bot. Garden: Pt. II 21 In Aconitum, monkshood, the nectaries stand upright like two horns covered with a hood, which abounds with such acrid matter that no insects penetrate it.

1877 Harper's Mag. Mar. 535/2 It is the Aconitum of medicine, the Monk's-hood or Wolf's-bane of our ancestors. Call the gardener, please, and have every bit of it pulled up by the roots.

1930 L. H. Bailey & E. Z. Bailey Hortus 23/1 Aconitums require a rich soil; partial shade is better than full sun as the flowers last longer.

1999 D. J. Hinkley Explorer's Garden ii. 55 The foliage was very handsomely and finely dissected, more so than on any other species of Aconitum that I have come across.

2004 Sunday Times (Nexis) 21 Mar. (Features section) 32 Our native monkshood or aconitum, with its spires of rich purple-blue, is a stately perennial for late summer.