66 THE EAIfUNCTTLXrS PAMILT. 



XI. LARKSPUR. DELPEINIUM. 



Annual or perennial herbs, with much divided leaves, the segments 

 usually palmate and naiTow. Sepals 5, coloui-ed, tenuinating below in a 

 hollow spur. Petals, in the British species 2, combined into 1, which is 

 lengthened into a spur within that of the calyx ; in some exotic species the 

 petals are 4, the two upper ones forming a spur. Carpels 1 to 5, each with 

 several seeds. 



A considerable genus, widely spread over the northern hemisphere with- 

 out the tropics. It is as well marked as the Columbines and the Aconites, 

 by the pecuhar irregularities of the calyx and corolla. 



1. Field Iiarkspur. Delphinium Consolida, Lum. 

 (Eng. Bot. 1. 1839.) 



An erect anniial, not above a foot high, glabrous or shghtly hairy, the 

 branches few and spreading. Radical leaves shortly stalked, the stem ones 

 sessile, aU divided into fine, hnear, deeply cut segments. Flowers blue, or 

 sometimes reddish or white, not numerous, in loose racemes, forming some- 

 times an irregular panicle. Spur of the calyx as long as the rest of the 

 flower (each about 6 lines). Petals two only, then- appendages united on the 

 imder side into an inner spm- open along its upper edge. Carpel solitary. 



A common weed of cultivation in the greater part of Europe and Russian 

 Asia, and probably of south European origin. In Britain, abundant only 

 in some of the eastern counties, but appearing occasionally in cornfields in 

 other parts of England. FL ivith the corn, or later, on the stubble. 



The common annual LarTcspur of our gardens will also occasionally sow 

 itself. It difiers chiefly from the field L. in its long dense spike, its shorter 

 spiu', and in some marks at the base of the united petals, which have been 

 compared to the letters AIAI, whence the name of I). Ajacis. Some 

 larger perennial species are also cultivated in flower-gardens. 



XII. ACONITE. ACONITUM. 



Perennial herbs, with much divided leaves, the segments palmate. Sepals 

 5, coloured, the upper one helmet -shaped, the two lateral ones broader than 

 the two lower. Petals 2 to 5, concealed within the calyx, the two upper 

 ones forming small and irregular spurred bodies, on long stalks withui the 

 upper sepal, the three lower very small and linear, or wanting. Stamens 

 numerous. Carpels 3 to 5, each with several seeds. 



A natural genus, consisting chiefly of mountain plants, spread over the 

 greater part of Europe and central Asia, represented also in northern Ame- 

 rica by a very few species. 



1. Comxaon Aconite. Aconitum Napellus, Linn. 



(Eng. Bot. Suppl. t. 2730. Aconite, Monkshood, or Wolfsbane.) 

 Stem firm and erect, 1| to 2 feet liigh. Leaves stalked, or the upper ones 

 nearly sessile, of a dark green, glabrous or shghtly downy, divided to the 

 base into 5 or 7 deeply cut, linear, pointed segments. Flowers large, dark 

 blue, on erect pedicels, forming a handsome, dense, terminal raceme. The 

 upper helmet-shaped sepal at first conceals the lateral ones, but is ultimately 

 thrown back. Spur of the small upper petals short, conical, and more or less 

 bent downwards. Carpels 3, often shghtly united at the base. 



