62 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
SPECIES I—DELPHINIUM AJACIS. Reich. 
Pirate KUVIL. (A.)4 
Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ. et Helv. Vol. TV. Ran. Tab. LXVIT. Fig. 4670. 
Baker, in Proceedings of the Thirsk Nat. Hist. Soc., Phytologist, New Series, 1858, 
. 376. 
Gay, a Gr. & Godr. Fl. de Fr. Vol. I. p. 46. Doreau, Fl. du Cent. de la Fr. ed. iii. 
Vol. II. p. 25. 
D. Consolida, Bab. Man. Brit. Bot. ed. v. p. 12. Hook. & Arn. Brit. Fl. ed. viii. p. 13. 
Benth. Handbook Brit. Fl. p. 66. Sm..Eng. Bot. ed. i. No. 1839; Eng. Fl. 
Vol. III. p. 30. (Non Linn.) 
D. Consolida /3, pubescens, Lowe, Fl. of Madeira, p. 7. 
Racemes generally elongated, arranged in a loose panicle. 
Carpels pubescent. Follicle downy, oblong, cylindrical, obliquely 
truncate at the apex, the persistent style about one-sixth the length 
of the carpel. Seeds with continuous waved ridges. Lower bracts 
cut into linear divisions. 
Cornfields. Rare. It has been long established as a weed 
in Cambridgeshire, “but is now disappearing through improved 
farming’? (Bab.). It occurs as a straggler in various other 
counties, even as far north as Edinburgh, but does not appear to 
be permanently naturalized except in Cambridgeshire. 
England, [Scotland]. Annual. Summer. 
Stem solitary, slightly branched, branches ascending. Leaves 
multifid, the lower ones stalked, the upper sessile. Segments short, 
linear. Racemes 4- to 16-flowered, terminating the stem and 
branches. Lowest bracts resembling the leaves, but smaller, and with 
fewer segments ; uppermost bracts entire. Pedicels ascending-patent, 
about as long as the lowest and much longer than the upper bracts, 
elongating a little after flowering, with two small entire bractioles 
near the middle of each. Flowers about 1 inch in diameter, the 
spur # inch long, curved upwards. Sepals rhomboid - spatulate, 
with slender claws, bright French blue, more rarely white or pink, 
paler on the outside. Petals combined into a monopetalous corolla, 
open on the lower side, pale purplish blue, with a few dark lines ; 
the two upper lobes darker blue, longer and much narrower than 
the lateral ones. Follicle about 2 inch long, cylindrical, oblong, a 
little wider about one-third from the base, olive, downy. Seeds 
nearly black, surrounded by numerous, closely- placed, thin, mem- 
* The Plate (D. Consolida), E. B. 1839, is retained as a good figure of D. Ajacis, The 
capsule and seed are added from a Cambridgeshire specimen, 
