RANUNCULACEAE (CROWFOOT FAMILY) 161 
fourths of an inch long and half as thick; achenes flattened, 
pointed by the withered styles, and densely woolly, which makes 
them easy to be distributed by the wind. (Fig. 110.) 
Means of control 
Prevent formation of seed by cutting or pulling while in early 
bloom. Cultivation of the ground at once destroys the weed. 
FIELD LARKSPUR 
Delphinium Consélida, L. 
Other English names: Knight’s Spur, Lark-heel. 
Introduced. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: June to August. 
Seed-time: July to September. 
Range: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, 
southward to Florida; locally in the Northern 
States. 
Habitat: Fields, roadsides, and waste places. 
A lovely plant, both in leaf and flower, brought 
to this country to beautify our gardens and grow- 
ing wild as an “escape.” In Europe its leaves 
are reputed to be poisonous to cattle, particularly 
when the plant is young and growing rapidly, but 
in this country it is regarded as far less dangerous 
than the native perennial Larkspurs so common 
in the West. 
Stems erect, smooth or nearly so, one to two 
feet in height, the branches spreading at wide 
angles. Leaves deep green, sessile or with very 
short petioles, palmately compound, the lobes 
again divided into numerous linear, cleft segments. 
Flowers in loose, terminal racemes, blue or violet- 
purple, sometimes lilac or white; they are very 
irregular, with five colored sepals, the upper one 
extending into a long, curved spur at the base; 
petals two in this species, with base enclosed in _ Fie. 111. — 
. . . Field Larkspur 
the spur of the calyx and united. Fruit a single (Melnhinded 
erect, smooth follicle, tipped with a slender beak Consolida). x. 
M 
