SANUNCULACEAE (CROWFOOT FAMILY) 161 



fourths of an inch long and half as thick; achenes flattened, 

 pointed by the withered styles, and densely woolly, which makes 

 them easy to be distributed by the wind. (Fig. 110.) 



Means of control 



Prevent formation of seed by cutting or pulling while in early 

 bloom. Cultivation of the ground at once destroys the weed. 



FIELD LARKSPUR 

 Delphinium Consdlida, L. 



Other English names: Knight's Spur, Lark-heel. 



Introduced. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom : June to August. 



Seed-time: July to September. 



Range: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, 



southward to Florida ; locally in the Northern 



States. 

 Habitat: Fields, roadsides, and waste places. 



A lovely plant, both in leaf and flower, brought 

 to this country to beautify our gardens and grow- 

 ing wild as an "escape." In Europe its leaves 

 are reputed to be poisonous to cattle, particularly 

 when the plant is young and growing rapidly, but 

 in this country it is regarded as far less dangerous 

 than the native perennial Larkspurs so common 

 in the West. 



Stems erect, smooth or nearly so, one to two 

 feet in height, the branches spreading at wide 

 angles. Leaves deep green, sessile or with very 

 short petioles, palmately compound, the lobes 

 again divided into numerous linear, cleft segments. 

 Flowers in loose, terminal racemes, blue or violet- 

 purple, sometimes lilac or white ; they are very 

 irregular, with five colored sepals, the upper one 

 extending into a long, curved spur at the base; 

 petals two in this species, with base enclosed in 

 the spur of the calyx and united. Fruit a single DI pTni^m 

 erect, smooth follicle, tipped with a slender beak Consolida). x|. 



