162 RANUNCULACEAE (CROWFOOT FAMILY) 
formed of the persistent style, and containing many angled, 
roughened, black seeds, which are sometimes an impurity of grass 
seeds and grain. (Fig. 111.) 
Means of control 
Small areas and plants in grain fields are best destroyed by hand- 
pulling at the time of first flowering, when the weed is most con- 
spicuous among surrounding crops. Infested meadows, waste 
land, and roadsides should be closely cut while the plants are in 
early bloom, thus preventing reproduction. 
DWARF LARKSPUR 
Delphinium tricérne, Michx. 
Other English name: Stagger Weed. 
Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: May to June. 
Seed-time: June to July. 
Range: Pennsylvania to Minnesota and Nebraska, southward to 
Georgia and Arkansas. 
Habitat: Upland fields, meadows, and pastures, open woods, and 
waste places. 
The range of the Dwarf Larkspur includes much grazing land, 
and the losses caused by it yearly are very considerable. It is 
said to be the most dangerous in early spring, when the young green 
leaves are but a few inches above the ground. Full-grown plants 
not only contain less of the poisonous properties, but are less 
attractive as forage, and it is stated that deaths from Larkspur 
poisoning nearly always occur before the plants are in bloom. 
Stem rather stout, simple, nearly smooth, succulent, six to 
fifteen inches tall, springing from tuberous and clustered roots. 
Leaves palmate, on long petioles, each of the five lobes again 
deeply but unequally three- to five-cleft. Panicles loose and open, 
bearing usually not more than six or eight bright blue flowers about 
an inch in length; the upper sepal, or spur, is nearly straight and 
ascending; petals four, the two upper ones yellowish with blue 
lines, the lower two bearded inside with white hairs. Follicles 
three or four, widely divergent, each about an inch long, tipped 
