HARPER'S GUIDE TO WILD FLOWERS 



surprises awaiting the watchful botanist, if he find the right 

 place, is the purple clematis. Later in summer the heads 

 of fruit, with their airy, plumed appendages, will scatter the 

 seeds wherever the breeze takes them. 



Tall Larkspur 



Delphinium exalt atum. — Family, Crowfoot. Color, deep, pur- 

 plish blue. Sepals, 5, one with a long spur at its base. Petals, 



4, in pairs, the upper pair projecting long spurs into the spur of 

 the sepal, the lower pair raised on short claws. Pistils, 3, mak- 

 ing as many erect, many-seeded pods. Flowers, softly hairy, in 

 long, terminal racemes, showy. Leaves, deeply cleft into 3 to 5 

 divisions which are acute at apex, wedge-shaped. July. 



Rich soil, mostly woods, from Pennsylvania to Minnesota 

 and southward. 



Dwarf Larkspur 



D. tricorne. — Color, bright blue, occasionally white. Flowers, 

 few, in a loose raceme. Stem, simple, erect, from a cluster of 

 tuberous roots. 1 to 3 feet high. April and May. 



West Pennsylvania, southward. 



Wild Monkshood 



Acomtum ancinktam. — Family, Crowfoot. Color, blue. Sepals, 



5, irregular; the upper shaped like a helmet or hood. Petals, 2, 

 small, standing on long claws, hidden under the hood of the 

 sepal. Pistils, 3 to 5. Leaves, with petioles, 3 to 5-lobed, the 

 divisions coarsely toothed. Summer. 



The singular flowers are showy, the "helmet" being 

 prominent, obtusely rounded above. They hang loosely 

 from the summit of weak, often climbing stems. The plant 

 loves the banks of small streams. Mountains of Virginia 

 northward to New Jersey. The aconitum of our pharmacies 

 is A. napcllus. All the species are highly poisonous. 



White Poppy 

 Papaver somntferum. — Family, Poppy. Color, white or blue. 

 (See White Flowers, p. 75.) 



Sea Rocket 



Cakite edentuta. — Family, Mustard. Color, purplish. Sepals 

 and petals, 4, open and spreading. Stamens, 6. Pod, short, 

 thick, 2-jointed, each half containing 1 seed; the lower joint 

 round; upper, when ripe, 4-angled, beaked. Stem, 8 to 14 inches 



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