202 



Blue to Purple Flowers 



ber and of a lovely intense blue colour; the top one is pro- 

 longed at the back into a hollow spur, and the others are 

 plain. 



This plant is also called Monkshood, the reason wherefor 

 may readily be seen. 



Delphinium Mendesiij or Blue Larkspur, is a smaller 

 species growing only from six to eighteen inches high and 

 having few leaves and fewer flowers on its hairy stems. 

 Though usually 



" Blue as the heaven it gazes at," 



this Larkspur has sometimes white blossoms marked with, 

 purple veins. 



Delphinium hicolor, or Blue-veined Larkspur, is a small 

 species which grows six to ten inches high from fasicled 

 and deep descending roots. It is a stout, pubescent plant, 

 with thickish leaves, the lower ones orbicular in outline, and 

 all deeply cleft into narrow, obtuse segments. The flow- 

 ers grow in scanty racemes, and have pale yellowish or 

 whitish petals, which are conspicuously blue-veined. This 

 species is found in dry places among the mountains. 



MOUNTAIN SAXIFRAGE 



Saxifraga oppositifolia. Saxifrage Family 



Stems: prostrate, densely leafy. Leaves: sessile, ovate, nearly or- 

 bicular, persistent, keeled, fleshy, opposite or imbricated in four rows, 

 the margins ciliate. Flowers: solitary, nearly sessile; calyx-lobes 

 obtuse, much shorter than the obovate purple petals. 



The simple description of Silene acaiilis, or Moss Cam- 

 pion, given on page 211, is applicable in several particulars 

 to this Mountain Saxifrage, which is also a dwarf arctic- 

 alpine flower and only grows at great altitudes. The chief 

 difference between the two plants lies in the leaves, which 



