26 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



forms of sepal 2 ; so that no one has ever been able to ignore 

 on this account the very close affinities vvhicli bind togetlier the 

 different species of Aconite ; or has ever separated them from one 

 another on seeing notable modifications presented by the characters 

 of the gyna'ceum or corolla : the first having four or five carpels 

 in J. variegatum, hebegynum, &c. ; the latter losing its lateral and 

 anterior petals ; this occurs in^. Lycodonum and the related species. 

 The flowers of these last are usually yellowish, and more rarely wine 

 red or dark purple.' 



AVe see from all this that an Aconite may be defined as a N'lyella 

 with irregular flowers ; and that the irregularity depends on the 

 deformity of the posterior sepals, and the great inequality of the 

 petals which become larger as they are nearer the axis — i.e., the 

 posterior side of the flower. Besides, the androceum and gynajceum 

 are the same in their essential characters ; and in the same way 

 sepals 4 and 5 have only one petal opposite each of them, while 

 sepals 1, 2, and 3 have each a pair of petals before them, at least 

 in A. Napellus The same irregularity, more or less marked, is 

 observed in the Larkspurs. 



The genus Delphi nium , or Larkspur,^ includes a very large number 

 of species, which do not all present exactly the same organization, 

 and which it has been proposed on this account to split up into 

 several genera.^ The variations observed depend on the greater or 

 lesser development of the parts of the corolla and the gyna^ceum. 

 These parts, then, are more or less irregular in the different types 

 which we shall review. 



If we examine, for example, B. pereyrinum Lamk.,* which grows 

 in the south of France, we see that its calyx is composed of five 

 sepals, of which the posterior one is prolonged into a spur analogous 

 to that of Aconitum Lycocfonum. These sepals are further quin- 

 cuncially imbricated in the bud (fig. 50) and within them we find a 

 corolla of three petals opposite the three posterior sepals. AVhile 

 each lateral sepal has before it only one petal, the posterior sepal has 



> A. Beptenlrionale KOBLL., Splc, 22, uml A. M. Delphinastntm SrAtii. Suit, a Buff., vii. 



rubicundum Fiscn., ex SeB., I. cit. 135, 13C., 330 ; 11. rhhdinium Si'ach, /. ii7.,351(Co»»o/i</o 



* Dtli>lnnium'V.,Inst.,\'lG,i.2M. — h., Uen., LiNDL., Journ. llorlic. Sue, vi. 35); 111. Sta- 



II. G81.— Ji'SH., (len., n. 231. — SVKCW, Suit, a jihysagria Si-ACll, /. cit., 347; W . Aconilella 



Huff., vii. 355.— Kndl., (Im., n. IV'.M).— Paykh, Si'acii, /. cit., 35H. 



Oroanoff., 2li», t. Iv. H. 11., dfii., U, n. 25. — * Dirt., ii. 261. — D. c<inlloj>etiilum DC, 



JI. li.v., Ada>uonia, iv. S, 11, 4«, IW. f^i/st., i. 3l7. 



