28 



NATURAL niSTOEY OF PLANTS. 



the stamens in curved rows, eight in number (fig. 52), each stamen 

 with its lihiment dihated below, and its anther two-celled, introrse, 



,4 



Delphinium Consolida. 

 Pig. 51. 

 Longritudinal section of flower. 



Fig. 52. 

 Diagram. 



with the cells spreading out into flat plates after dehiscence. In 



all the inflorescence consists 

 ^^;^>''7^ of terminal racemes, each 



flower being solitary in the 

 ^^ axil of a bract, and bearing 



two sterile bracts at a va- 

 riable height on its pedicel. 

 These species, characterized 

 by their single carpel, con- 

 stitute the genus Phlcdinium 

 {Consolida)} 



Delphinium Staphisagria. 

 Fig. 53. Fig. 54. 



Flower with four Flower with eight 



petals. petals. 



' Flowers Bometiraes occur with two or three 

 caqicls; but a higher nuuiher is tolerably rare, 

 even in cultivated plants. However, Kiiiscn- 

 LCGEn {Nolic. Botan., 6) has seen flowers of D. 

 Ajacif with from five to eight carpels. In our 

 parterres, when the carpels are thus numerous, 

 some of them may be sterile. In double flowers 

 we further observe that the posterior petals (the 

 two halves of a single organ) are either entirely 

 separate or else united for nearly the whole 



length of the limb. This is then flat, and tra- 

 versed by two large greenish ribs, which sepa- 

 rate decidedly towards the tip, the petal be- 

 coming bidentate or bilobatc. The spurs become 

 smaller like that of the sepal which encloses 

 them, but they are separate, each forming a dis- 

 tinct tube. As in D. ConsoJida, the spur very 

 rarely disappears entirely in both calyx and 

 corolla. The flower is then also the same as 

 that of a double Nigella. 



