VOL. II.] 



CROWFOOT FAMILY. 



59 



12. DELPHINIUM L. Sp. PI. 530. 1753. 



Annual or perennial erect branching herbs, with racemose or paniculate showy flowers. 

 Leaves palmately lobed or divided. Sepals 5, the posterior one prolonged into a spur. 

 Petals 2 or 4, small, the two posterior ones spurred, the lateral, when present, small. Carpels 

 few, sessile, many-ovuled, forming follicles at maturity. [Latin, from the supposed resem- 

 blance of the flowers to a dolphin.] 



A genus of beautiful plants, with large irregular flowers, comprising some 60 species, natives of 

 the north temperate zone. Besides the following, some 20 others in western North America and 

 several in the mountains of Mexico. 



Annual; pistil i. i. D. Consolida. 



Perennials; pistils 3. 

 Follicles erect. 



Raceme narrow, elongated; spur straight. 

 Raceme short; spur curved upward. 

 Follicles widely spreading; raceme loose. 



2. D. urceolatum. 



3. D. Carolinianum. 



4. D. trtcorne. 



i. Delphinium Consolida L,. Field 



Larkspur. Knight' s-spur. 



Lark-heel. (Fig. 1562.) 



Delphinium Consolida L,. Sp. PI. 530. 1753. 



Erect, glabrous, or somewhat pubescent, 1-2^ 

 high, divaricately branched. Leaves short-peti- 

 oled or sessile, all divided into narrowly linear cleft 

 or toothed segments; racemes terminal, rather 

 loose, S'-io' long; flowers on short pedicels, blue 

 or white, I'-i^' long; spur slender, bent near the 

 middle; petals 2, united; carpel i, forming an 

 erect glabrous follicle in fruit, tipped with a short 

 slender beak. 



In waste places, naturalized from Europe in south- 

 ern New Jersey, Pennsylvania and southward, locally 

 adventiye or fugitive northward. Summer. Delphin- 

 ium Ajacis of the gardens, which is commonly culti- 

 vated and occasionally seen outside of fences, may be 

 distinguished from this species by its pubescent fol- 

 licles, shorter spurs, longer and denser racemes. 



2. Delphinium urceolatum Jacq. Tall Larkspur. (Fig. 1563.) 



Delphinium urceolatum Jacq. Coll. i: 153 

 1786. 



Delphinium exaltatum Ait. Hort. Kew. 2: 

 244. 1789. 



Slender, 2-6 high, glabrous or spar- 

 ingly hairy below, densely pubescent 

 above. Leaves large, all but the upper 

 petioled, deeply 3-5 -cleft, the divisions 

 lanceolate or oblanceolate, cuneate, acu- 

 minate, cleft and toothed toward the 

 apex, upper ones reduced to small linear 

 or lanceolate bracts subtending the flow- 

 ers; racemes dense, elongated (some- 

 times over i in length); flowers purple 

 or blue, 8 // -io // long, downy-pubescent, 

 the lower pedicels about \' long; spur 

 nearly straight, 4" long; follicles 3, 

 erect, 4 // ~5 // long, pubescent, tipped 

 with a subulate beak. 



In woods, Allegheny and Huntingdon 

 Cos., Pa., to Minnesota, south to North Car- 

 olina, Alabama, and Nebraska. July-Aug. 



