Delphinium. RANUNCULACE^E. 45 



A.* pubescens, Coville. A nearly related plant with very scaly caudex : flowers 

 sulphur-yellow, rarely with piuk tinge : spurs sliorter, 14 to 20 lines long ; tlie short rounded 

 hhxdes of the petals scarcely over a third the length of lance-ohlong sepals. — Contrib. U. S. 

 Nat. Herb. iv. 56, t. 1. — High sierras of Tulare Co., Calif., near Mineral King, 10,500 feet, 

 in granite sand, X IF. ^1. Wmj/tt, 27 July, 1880; and on mountain side north of White 

 Chief Mine, F. \\ Coville, 6 August, 1891. Regarded by Dr. Gray as a dubious form of 

 the preceding. 



A ■ longissima, Gray. Puberulent or glabrous, autumn-flowering : flowers pale yellow: 

 sepals lanceolate, little surpassing the narrowly spatulate petals : filiform spurs 4 to 6 inches 

 long, iiardly enlarging up to the narrow orifice. — Gray in Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. xvii. 

 317, & Bot. Gaz. viii. 295; Wats. Gard. & For. i. 31, f. 6. — Kavines of Chisos Mountains, 

 S. W. Texas, Havard. (Adj. Mex., Palmer.) 



15. DELPHfNIUM, Tourn. Larkspur. {Delphinus, dolphin, from 

 the shape of the flower.) — Annual or perennial herbs (of northern temperate 

 regions) ; with palmately cleft or divided leaves, and racemose or paniculate 

 flowers, commonly showy. — Inst. 426, t. 241 ; L. Gen. no. 449 ; Gray, Gen. lU. 

 i. 41, t. 15.1 



§ 1. CONSOLIDA, DC. Carpel and follicle only one: petals (in ours only 2) 



united into one body : Old World annuals, or rarely more enduring, low ; with 



leaves dissected into narrow linear or filiform divisions : flowers blue or violet, 



varying to purple and white. — Syst. i. 341. 



D. CoNSOLiDA, L. Loosely paniculate in inflorescence : slender spur horizontal : follicle gla- 

 brous : seeds with interrupted transverse ridges. — Spec. i. 530 ; Reichenb. Ic. Fl. Germ. iv. 

 t. 66. — Old grain-fields, &c., rare, Virginia, &c. (Nat. from Eu.) 



T). Ajacis, L. Flowers more numerous and spicately racemose : foUicle pubescent ; seeds 

 with rugosely broken ridges. — Spec. i. 531 ; Reichenb. 1. c. t. 67. — Escaped from gardens 

 in Canada and Atlantic and Middle States, in certain places. D. orientale, Gay, a common 

 garden Larkspur with more showy (violet-colored) flowers in a denser raceme, is thought to 

 be the original D. Ajacis, L. ; according to Lawson, Rev. Cauad. Ranunc. 80, it has been 

 collected in the far interior of Canada, probably from a cultivated plant (Nat. from Eu.) 



§ 2. Delphinastrum, DC. 1. c. 351. Carpels 3 to 5 : flowers never scarlet or 

 orange : petals 4, distinct ; upper pair usually glabrous, extending backward into 

 spurs ; lateral ones unguiculate, more or less hairy on the face, in ours emarginate 

 or 2-lobed at apex : follicles in ours almost always 3 : perennials. In several 

 species, such as D. tricorne, the caulicle does not lengthen in germination, but the 

 connate petioles of the cotyledons do so, and the plumule comes out from the 

 base of the false stemlet which is thus formed. 



* Seeds with a close smooth coat, dark-colored : stem few-leaved, from a fasciculate-tuber- 

 ous root : Atlantic species. 



D. tricorne, Michx. Low, succulent : leaves deeply and somewhat pedately .5-parted and 

 divisions cleft and laciniate into a few narrow lobes; raceme loose, fe w-many -flowered; 

 flowers bright blue, or variegated with white (not rarely white) : spur ascending, half or 

 three fourths inch long : follicles 3, half inch to inch long, strongly diverging at maturity. — 

 Fl. i. 314 (excl. habitat " highest mountains of Carolina ") ; Lodd. Bot. Cab. t. 306 ; Deless. 

 Ic. Sel. i. t. 59; Terr. & Gray, Fl. i. 31 ; Gray, Gen. 111. i. 41, t. 15 ; Lindl. Veg. Kingd. 

 426, f. 297. DelphidiMm flexuosum, Raf. Ann. Nat. i. 12. — Moist fertile soil, Pennsylvania to 

 Minnesota, south to Virginia, W. Georgia, and Arkansas; fl. spring. 



1 Recent important literature: Gray, Bot. Gaz. xii. 49-54; Huth, Delphinium-Arten N. A., Bull. 

 Herb. Boiss. i. 327-336, & in Encl. Jahrb. xx. 322-499. 



