Delphinium.'] flora indica. 47 



1. The variety a is that commonly cultivated in gardens in Euglaitd, where it is 

 often very luxuriant, with large leaves, the lobes of which are little divided. In a 

 wild state it is seldom glabrous, and is very variable in size. In India it is less 

 common than some other forms, but specimens of y and € are often barely, if at 

 all, distinguishable from a. 



2. Viscid specimens from Zanskar and Piti are identical with an authentic speci- 

 men of A. viscosa, Gouan, in Herb. Hook. 



3. The Aquilegia pubiflora of Wall., which is common in the rainy Himalaya from 

 Kumaon westward as far as Kashmir, was long considered by us as having claims to 

 specific distinction. A more careful study of the genus has, however, shown us that 

 there are no characters in the leaves which can be relied upon, and that the elon- 

 gated or acuminate sepals, which we had regarded as a sufficient character, occur 

 equally in European specimens, which are only distinguished from A. vulgaris and 

 A. viscosa by those botanists in whose opinion every trilling variation of aspect 

 affords specific characters. There is no doubt that the ordinary state of this variety 

 is quite distinct in appearance from the common alpine state of A. vulgaris ; but 

 not only do the specimens from the interior of the mountains gradually obliterate 

 these differences, but many specimens from the outer hills, where it cannot be sup- 

 posed that two species grow, differ in their large leaves as well as in the large 

 flowers and broader sepals, from the normal state of A. pubiflora. 



4. 5 is a very remarkable form, but it is perhaps less deserving of being distin- 

 guished as a variety than any other, as the monstrous or considerably enlarged 

 flowers on which its main character depends, occur in very different localities, and 

 with every variety of leaf and size. Some of the states of this plant, when the 

 spur is abnormal, and the sepals are much enlarged and obtuse, are very remarkable, 

 and at first sight have the appearance of being specifically distinct. They must, how- 

 ever, be regarded rather as monsters than as anything else. Some specimens from 

 Mr. Winterbottom must be mentioned, as being included under this variety, lest it 

 should be supposed that we consider them as distinct. These seem to be identical, 

 in flower at least, with A.jucunda, Fischer. 



5. The smaller forms of A. Pyrenaica, DC, with a slender, perfectly straight 

 spur, and viscid pubescence, are readily distinguished from the ordinary form of 

 A, vulgaris ; but unfortunately they pass, in every country in which they occur, by a 

 series of imperceptible gradations, into A. vulgaris. The stem becomes tall and 

 branched, and softly pubescent, the spur becomes much curved, and the flowers 

 much larger. Yisiani has well pointed out, in the 'Flora Dalmatica,' the uncertainty 

 of the spur as a character, and has stated his conviction that A. Pyrenaica, with a 

 straight spur, is not distinct from A. viscosa. Nor are the rigid glaucous leaves a 

 sufficient character to distinguish certain states of this variety from the remainder. 



16. DELPHINIUM, L. 



Sepala 5, posticum calcaratum. Petala 4 (mterdum in unum calca- 

 ratum coalita) ; duo postica basi calcarata, 2 antica unguiculata. Ova- 

 ria 1-7. — Herbse annua vel perennes, caulibus erectis. Folia pahiiatim 

 lobata. Flores conspicui, ccerulei vel purpurascentes. 



The species of this genus are all natives of the north temperate zone, growing 

 either in woods or in the grassy pastures of mountainous districts, or in dry, stony, 

 and desert hot places. None have been found in the mountains of the Indian Archi- 

 pelago. They are all extremely variable, and the genus is in consequence, if pos- 

 sible, in still greater confusion than the other genera of Banunculacea. The mode 

 of ramification and denseness of the racemes, the shape and size of the flowers, and 

 the length of the spur, seem to vary almost as much as the shape of the leaves ; and 

 we have not been successful in our attempt to arrive at definite ideas regarding the 

 limits of European and North Asiatic species, from the materials at our disposal. 



