162 RANUNCULACEAE (CROWFOOT FAMILY) 



formed of the persistent style, and containing many angled, 

 roughened, black seeds, which are sometimes an impurity of grass 

 seeds and grain. (Fig. 111.) 



Means of control 



Small areas and plants in grain fields are best destroyed by hand- 

 pulling at the time of first flowering, when the weed is most con- 

 spicuous among surrounding crops. Infested meadows, waste 

 land, and roadsides should be closely cut while the plants are in 

 early bloom, thus preventing reproduction. 



DWARF LARKSPUR 



Delphinium tricdrne, Michx. 



Other English name: Stagger Weed. 



Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom : May to June. 



Seed-time: June to July. 



Range: Pennsylvania to Minnesota and Nebraska, southward to 



Georgia and Arkansas. 

 Habitat: Upland fields, meadows, and pastures, open woods, and 



waste places. 



The range of the Dwarf Larkspur includes much grazing land, 

 and the losses caused by it yearly are very considerable. It is 

 said to be the most dangerous in early spring, when the young green 

 leaves are but a few inches above the ground. Full-grown plants 

 not only contain less of the poisonous properties, but are less 

 attractive as forage, and it is stated that deaths from Larkspur 

 poisoning nearly always occur before the plants are in bloom. 



Stem rather stout, simple, nearly smooth, succulent, six to 

 fifteen inches tall, springing from tuberous and clustered roots. 

 Leaves palmate, on long petioles, each of the five lobes again 

 deeply but unequally three- to five-cleft. Panicles loose and open, 

 bearing usually not more than six or eight bright blue flowers about 

 an inch in length ; the upper sepal, or spur, is nearly straight and 

 ascending ; petals four, the two upper ones yellowish with blue 

 lines, the lower two bearded inside with white hairs. Follicles 

 three or four, widely divergent, each about an inch long, tipped 



