"SWEET SUMMER BUDS" 197 



LARKSPUR (Delphinium). "Lark's-heels trim," 

 one of the flowers in the introductory song of 

 "The Two Noble Kinsmen," is the Delphinium, 

 also called larkspur, lark's-claw, lark's-toes, and 

 knight' s-spur. The generic name is derived from 

 the Greek delphinium, because the buds were 

 thought to resemble the form of a dolphin. 



As with many other plants, there were two kinds, 

 the "wild" and the "tame"; and it was the wild 

 kind that was "nourished up in gardens," according 

 to Parkinson, who describes the plant as having 

 "small, long, green leaves, finely cut, almost like 

 fennel and the branches ending in a long spike of 

 hollow flowers with a long spur behind them. They 

 are of several colors : bluish purple, or white, or ash 

 color, or red, paler or deeper, and parti-colored of 

 two colors in a flower. 



"They are called diversely by divers writers as 

 Cons olid a regulis, Calearis flos, Flos regius, Bucci- 

 num Romanorum, and Cuminum silvestre alterum 

 Dioscoridis; but the most usual name with us is 

 Delphinium. But whether it be the true Delphinium 

 of Dioscorides, or the Poet's Hyacinth, or the Flower 

 of Ajax, another place is fitter to discuss than this. 

 We call them in English Larks-heels, Larkspurs, 

 Larkstoes, or claws, and Monks-hoods. There is no 



