Summer Flowers of the High Alps

This plant is a species of Aconite, and a close relation of the common Monk’s-hood illustrated on the previous page. It is common on the borders of woods and in bushy places between 3000 and 7000 feet above the sea level. In this species, which, like the common Monk’s-hood, is visited almost exclusively by humble-bees, the upper helmet-like sepal which conceals the honey is especially long. It is interesting to note that the humble-bees do not, in all cases, obtain the honey in the way intended by the plant. A dark spot is often to be seen near the tip of the helmet where a humble-bee has nibbled through the flower leaf and obtained access to the nectary direct. In this way the designs of the plant for cross fertilisation may be frustrated, for where the honey is obtained in this manner no pollen is carried from flower to flower by the insect visitor. Aconitum Anthora, which is rather like the above, has more finely divided leaves and darker yellow flowers which are much less elongated than those of the Wolf’s-bane. The flowers, in fact, closely resemble those of the common Monk’s-hood except that they are yellow instead of blue. Both plants are poisonous.