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Rh the rest much reduced, coarsely and sparingly dentate, the uppermost very small; pedicels erect, slender, lower up to 6·5 cm. long, upper much shorter; bracteoles linear, up to 4 mm. long, or on the lower pedicels broader and sparingly dentate. Sepals blue, crispo-puberulous; uppermost helmet-shaped, helmet more or less oblique, depressed, 15-20 mm, high, 17-22 mm. from the tip to the base, about 7 mm. wide (in profile), slightly concave towards the base in front and produced into a short beak and broadly clawed; lateral oblique, sub-orbicular, scarcely unguiculate, ciliate, 14-18 mm. long; lower oblong, 10 mm. long, obtuse, deflexed. Nectaries hispidulous all over; claw almost straight, 12-13 mm. long; hood leaning forward, gibbous near the top on the back, 5 mm. long, lip short, broad, emarginate, reflexed. Filaments hairy in the upper part, 8-10 mm. long, winged beyond the middle, wings abruptly contracted. Carpels 3, oblong, conniving in the flower, then sub-divaricate, adpressedly greyish-pubescent, contracted into the rather long style, Follicles unknown. Seeds obconic, 3 mm. long, terete with numerous small, short transverse lamellæ.

Properties and uses.—Watt quotes in Agric. Ledg., G. G. Minniken as saying that in Bashahr the poisonous aconites are collectively called Mohra. The poisonous principle of this aconite is pseudo-aconite.

21. A. Balfourii, Stapf, sp. nov.

Vernacular names:—Gobriya (Darma); Gobari (West Nepal); Banwa (British Garhwal).

Habitat:—Subalpine and Alpine Himalaya, from British Garhwal to Nepal.

Roots biennial, paired or ternate, tuberous; daughter-tubers sometimes paired or divided from the base, conic or elongate, conico-cylindric, 3-7 cm. long, 1-2 cm. thick with a few root-fibres which are either slender-filiform or conspicuously thickened (up to 5 mm. diam.) at the base, externally greyish-brown, fracture white, almost horny, taste rather indifferent, followed by a tingling sensation; cambium discontinuous, broken up into strands arranged in a ring, the smaller circular in transverse section,