152 Ranunculaceae 



1. PAEONIA L. PEONY. 



Perennial herbs with ternately or pinnately compound 

 leaves and large showy flowers. Sepals 5 or 6, herbace- 

 ous and persistent. Petals of the same number, borne 

 with the numerous stamens on a fleshy disk. Style 

 short or none. Follicles 2-5, thick and leathery, several- 

 seeded. 



1. P. Brownii Dougl. Glaucous and somewhat fleshy, 20-40 

 cm. high; leaves mostly radical, ternately or biternately 

 divided, the lobes obovate to linear-spatulate ; peduncles 2.5-5 

 cm. long; petals about equaling the sepals, brownish-red; fol- 

 licles usually 5, broadly oblong, smooth, 2-4 cm. long. 



Occasional in the foothills throughout our range. March-April. 



2. AQUILEGIA L. COLUMBINE. 



Erect branching perennial herbs with ternately de- 

 compound leaves and large showy flowers. Sepals 5, 

 regular, petaloid, deciduous. Petals concave,- spurred at 

 base. Stamens numerous, the inner ones reduced to 

 staminodia. Carpels 5, sessile, many-ovuled, forming 

 heads of follicles in fruit. 



1. A. truncata F. & M. Glabrous or somewhat viscid-pubes- 

 cent, 6-12 dm. high ; leaves large, biternate, the leaflets roundish, 

 cuneate at base, incised, the segments lobed or crenately toothed, 

 long-petioled ; flowers scarlet, tinged with yellow, reflexed ; sepals 

 truncate, widely spreading, shorter than the spurs ; follicles 2-3 

 cm. long, veined, beaked by the long persistent style. 



Occasional in moist shady places, mostly above 2500 feet altitude. May- 

 July. 



3. DELPHINIUM L. LARKSPUR. 



Annual, or ours perennial, erect branching herbs with 

 palmately divided leaves, and racemose or paniculate 

 showy flowers. Sepals 5, the posterior one prolonged 

 into a spur. Petals usually 4, the 2 posterior spurred. 

 Carpels few, becoming many-seeded follicles. 



