188 BRECK’S NEW BOOK OF FLOWERS. 
D. meteloides, D. Wrightii of the catalogues. This 
species is very splendid, producing large funnel-shaped 
flowers, pure white, delicately shaded with very pale 
blue. Before the buds expand, they are curiously twisted 
or folded, and if cut off in the afternoon and placed in 
water in the house, they will begin to unfold early in the 
evening, and by nine o’clock be fully opened, filling the 
room with a delightful fragrance. All the species open 
during the night, remain during the next day, and then 
perish. The plants of D. meteloides are two or three feet 
high, branching, producing a succession of flowers through 
the season. 
There are varieties of double-blue, white, and straw 
color. These double flowers are curious, but do not have 
much claim to beauty. The single flower is filled up with 
other funnel-shaped petals. The double sorts are D. 
fastuosa alba plena, and purpurea plena. D. humilis 
flava is a dwarf species, with yellow flowers. All these 
double varieties are late in flowering. They are all prop- 
agated by seeds, being annuals in the open ground, but 
perennials in the green-house. <A plant of D. meteloides, 
which grew on the grape border and securely protected, 
survived the winter and flowered profusely the next year. 
DELPHINIUM,—Langspvr. 
[From a Greek word signifying a dolphin, on account of the resemblance be 
tween the shape of the flower and the imaginary figures of the dolphin.] 
The French call it Pied @alouetie,which is the same as 
the English, Larkspur, and it is also called Lark’s-claws, 
Lark’s-heel, on account of the spur shape projection at 
the back of the flower. The species are showy annuals 
or perennials, valuable as border-flowers. The leaves are 
much divided, and the flowers in terminal spikes, blue, 
