XXVI 



ON PERENNIAL LARKSPURS OR DELPHINIUMS 



THE name Larkspur is one of the oldest of popular 

 garden terms, and it is a tribute to the power of the 

 hardy plant movement that we flower-lovers are taking 

 to the botanical name, Delphinium, so readily. The 

 rough-and-ready classification of the garden is that 

 the annual form is the Larkspur and the perennial the 

 Delphinium. As a matter of fact, all Larkspurs are 

 Delphiniums, but the distinction will serve. The exten- 

 sion of borders for herbaceous plants has led to a 

 demand for perennial Delphiniums on account of their 

 tall growth and beautiful spikes of blue flowers, and 

 people seem quite content to know them by their 

 botanical name. 



Delphinium (pronunciation Del-nn'-i-um) is formed, 

 according to the usually accurate Chambers, from the 

 Greek Delphinion, Larkspur ; and Larkspur is " so called 

 from the spur formation of calyx and petals." He 

 takes us back to the Middle-English laverock, the 

 Anglo-Saxon lawerce, and the German lerche. But 

 botanists trace Delphinium to delphin, a dolphin, from 

 a supposed likeness of the spur to a dolphin's head. 



Larkspur is not the popular form of the name, for 

 the Delphinium has many garden names. Larks' heels, 

 Larksclaw, and Larkstoes are others ; and the first of 

 these was used by Shakespeare, if we may credit him 



with the introductory song to Beaumont and Fletcher's 



23? 



