Pruate LII. 
DELPHINIUM Asacrs, Linn. 
Natural Order RanuncuLAacE». 
GEN. Cuar.—Sepals 5, subconnate at base, the uppermost one (or 
the calyx-tube) prolonged at the base outside into a spur. Petals 
2-4, small, the 2 posterior (often united) prolonged into a spur within 
the calyx-spur, the 2 lateral not spurred or wanting. Carpels 1-5, 
sessile, free, containing many ovules, opening follicularly when ripe. 
Leaves alternate, subternately lobed or dissected. Flowers blue purple 
pink or white, very rarely yellow. Bth. et Hook. Gen. Plant. i. 9. 
Speco. Coar.— Flowers large, in a lax, spike-like raceme ; lower bracts 
similar to the leaves; peduncles only as long as or scarcely longer than 
sepals. Follicle pubescent, 2-8 times as long as broad, gradually taper- 
ing into the style. Seeds covered with continuous wavy ridges. Leaves 
ternately multifid. Plant annual. 
Delphinium Ajacis, Linn. Sp. Pl. p. 748; Gren. et, Godr. Fl. de Fr. 
i. 46; Woods, Tour. Fl. p. 9. 
Hasirat.—Near Sospello (Alpes Maritimes). Collected by my 
father, Nov. 27, 1865. 
Remarxs.—Delphinium Ajacis, Linn., closely resembles both D. Con- 
solida, Linn., and D. pubescens, DC. JD. Consolida, Linn., is much 
fewer and smaller flowered, and has long peduncles spreading stiffly 
and angularly, the bracts of one or two lobes only, a small glabrous 
capsule not tapering into the style, and seeds covered with interrupted 
ridges. D. pubescens, DC., has the bracts and habit of D. Consolida, 
Linn., but narrow, oblong-lanceolate sepals, and a pubescent capsule. 
It must be owned, however, that D. pubescens, DC., forms a link 
between D. Consolida, Linn., and D. Ajacis, Linn. ; so that, should other 
intermediates be discovered, all three would have to be thrown into 
one species. 
I have not been able to find any mention of habitats for D. Ajacis, 
Linn., between Nice and Marseilles. M. Ardoino* only cites it as 
growing at Castillon and Sospello, towns a few miles north of Men- 
tone; and De Notaris,t when speaking of the coast-line from Nice to 
Genoa, gives no distinct habitats, but says that it is “common in the 
region of olives.” 
Expianation oF Prats LII.—Fig. 1, capsule, magnified. Fig. 2, 
seed, magnified. Fig. 3, the same, of natural size. 
* Ardoino, ‘Flore des Alpes Maritimes,’ p. 20. 
+ De Notaris, ‘Repertorium Flore Ligustice in Memorie della Accademia della 
Scienze di Torino,’ ser. 2, tom. viii. (1846), p. 9. 
