Gerard's Herbal
Fig. 1406. Winter Wolf's-Bane.
The Description.
This kind of Aconite is called Aconitum hyemale belgarum; of Dodonĉus, Aconitum luteum minus: in English, Wolf's-Bane, or Small Yellow Wolf's-Bane, whose leaves come forth of the ground in the dead time of winter, many times bearing the snow upon their heads of his leaves and flowers; yea the colder the weather is, and the deeper that the snow is, the fairer and larger is the flower; and the warmer that the weather is, the lesser is the flower, and worse coloured: these leaves I say come forth of the ground immediately from the root, with a naked, soft, and slender stem, deeply cut or jagged on the leaves, of an exceeding fair green colour, in the midst of which cometh forth a yellow flower, in show or fashion like that of the common field Crowfoot: after which follow sundry cods full of brown seeds like the other kinds of Aconites: the root is thick, tuberous and knotty, like to the kinds of Anemone.
The Place.
It groweth upon the mountains of Germany: we have great quantity of it in our London gardens.
The Time.
It flowereth in January; the seed is ripe in the end of March.
The Names.
It is called, Aconitum hyemale, or hibernum, or winter Aconite: that it is a kind of Aconite or Wolf's-Bane, both the form of the leaves and cods, and also the dangerous faculties of the herb itself do declare.
It is much like to Aconitum theophrasti: which he describeth in his ninth book, saying, it is a short herb having no superfluous thing growing on it, and is without branches as this plant is: the root, saith he, is like to a nut, or else to a dry fig, only the leaf seemeth to make against it, which is nothing at all like to that of Succory, which he compareth it unto.
The Temperature and Virtues.
A. This herb is counted to be very dangerous and deadly, hot and dry in the fourth degree, as Theophrastus in plain words doth testify concerning his own Aconite; for which he saith that there was never found his antidote or remedy: whereof Athenĉus and Theopompus write, that this plant is the most poisonous herb of all others, which moved Ovid to say Quĉ quia nascuntur dura vivacia caute:["They spring from the hard rock" Ovid, Metamorphoses Bk. VII. l. 418] notwithstanding it is not without his peculiar virtues. Ioachimus Camerarius now living in Nuremberg saith, the water dropped into the eyes ceaseth the pain and burning: it is reported to prevail mightily against the bitings of scorpions, and is of such force, that if the scorpion pass by where it groweth and touch the same, presently he becometh dull, heavy, and senseless, and if the same scorpion by chance touch the White Hellebore, he is presently delivered from his drowsiness.
