10 RANUNCULACE^E. Aquilegia. 



follicles in fruit. — Glabrous perennial branching herbs, with 2 - 3-ternately com- 

 pound leaves, the leaflets lobed. Flowers showy, terminating the branches. 



Many species have been described, which some authorities now reduce to half a dozen or less. 

 They belong mostly to the cooler parts of the northern hemisphere. 



1. A. truncata, Fisch. & Mey. Stems 1 to 2 feet high : flowers 1 to 2 J inches 

 in diameter, red tinged with orange or yellow : sepals spreading or reflexed : petals 

 truncate, the very short limb not at all produced ; spurs thick and blunt, 6 to 9 

 lines long. — Ind. Sem. Petrop. 1843, 8. Eegel, Sert. Petrop. 1852, t. & fol. 11. 

 A. Canadensis, Torr. Pacif. B. Eep. iv. 62. A. Califomica, Lindl. ; Gray, Proc. 

 Am. Acad. vii. 328. A. eximia, Van Houtte, Fl. Serres, 1857, t. 1188. 



Shady places by streams. Very variable as to size, foliage, and color of flowers. A variety 

 near New Idria has silvery margins to the leaves. 



A. Formosa, Fisch., of Oregon and eastward, is very similar, but has the limb of the petals 

 longer and produced upward on the outer side. 



2. A. caerulea, James. Stems 1 to 2 feet high, sparingly branched : leaflets 

 usually sessile : flowers blue or white, very large, the sepals spreading 2 to 3 inches : 

 petals longer than the stamens and style ; spurs slender, and l-£ to 2 inches long. — 

 Long's Exped. ii. 15. A. leptocera, Sutt. Jour. Acad. Phil. vii. 9. A. macrantha, 

 Hook. & Arn. Bot. Beechey, 317, t. 72. 



On wooded slopes in the Sierra Nevada at 8,000 to 12,000 feet {Brewer, Bolander), rare in 

 this State, to the Rocky Mountains, where it is very abundant. 



9. DELPHINIUM, Tourn. Larkspur. 



Sepals 5, colored and petal-like, very irregular, the upper one prolonged back- 

 wards at the base into a long spur. Petals 2 to 4, irregular ; when 4 the upper 2 

 developed backwards into a spur which is enclosed in the spurs of the calyx. Sta- 

 mens many. Pistils 1 to 5. Fruit of 1 to 5 dehiscent, many-seeded follicles. — 

 Erect herbs, with palmately-cleft, lobed, or dissected leaves, and racemose flowers. 



The species of this genus are variable in so many directions that it is difficult to satisfactorily 

 limit or define them. Accordingly, some authors recognize 100 or more species, others 40 or less. 

 They all belong to the north temperate zone. Our species are all perennials, with showy flowers, 

 some of great beauty. 



* Flowers blue, purple, or violet, or at least not red. 

 +- Mostly low : roots a cluster of thick fleshy fibres or tubercles. 



1. D. simplex, Dougl. Canescent throughout with a fine short somewhat 

 woolly pubescence, rarely nearly glabrous : stem stout and strict, rather tall, 1 to 2| 

 feet high, leafy : leaves all much dissected, with linear obtuse lobes, on stout erect 

 petioles : racemes usually dense and many-flowered, the pedicels often short and 

 nearly erect : flowers small, blue, varying to nearly white or yellowish ; sepals 4 to 5 

 lines long, usually about equalling the stout straight spur, rarely much spreading : 

 ovaries and capsule pubescent. — Hook. Fl. i. 25. 



In the Coast Ranges from San Diego northward to Washington Territory and Idaho ; Knight's 

 Ferry, Bigclow. Much resembling D. azurcum of the eastern plains, which differs in its less strict 

 habit, aud looser racemes of larger and more open flowers. 



2. D. variegatum, Torr. & Gray. Pubescent with straight spreading or often 

 reflexed hairs, the pubescence above sometimes tomentose or rarely nearly want- 

 ing, sometimes tomentose throughout or short and appressed : stems 1 to 2 feet 

 high, sparingly leafy : leaves all dissected with oblong or linear, obtuse or acutish 

 lobes : flowers large, on long pedicels in a short open raceme, deep blue or rarely 

 white ; sepals broad, spreading, 6 to 10 lines long ; the spur usually comparatively 

 short and stout ; upper petals not purple-veined (in dried specimens) : ovary and 

 capsule pubescent. — Fl. i. 32. 



