Stavesacre

Stavesacre (Delphinium staphisagria), a species of Larkspur (q.v.), a native of the south of Europe. The seeds have been used in medicine from ancient times; they contain the alkaloids delphinine, delphinoidine, and delphisine, and a considerable quantity of a fixed oil. The seeds are poisonous, causing great depression of the nervous and circulatory systems, with vomiting and purging. They are officinal in the British pharmacopœia, and from them an ointment is made which is used to kill lice, this being its sole therapeutic application at the present time.