162 The Larkspur. 



beautiful of the cultivated exotics. It is a native of Ncp au i 

 whence it was introduced into England about twenty-five years 

 ago. It is a hardy plant, growing in any common garden soil 

 and producing its large, splendid dark crimson flowers from the 

 ends of its decumbent shoots. 



DELPHINIUM— THE LARKSPUR. 



Natural Order, Ranunculacese. Linnsean System, Polyandria, Triey n i a 

 Generic Distinctions : Calyx, petal-like, irregular, of five colored sepals 

 the upper one spurred ; corolla, five petalled, irregular, the two up per 

 petals drawn out into a tubular, nectariferous spur, enclosed in the spur of 

 the calyx. 



D. grandiflorum. Leaves, palmately many parted into linear lobes ; pedicels, 

 longer than the bracts ; petals, shorter than the calyx ; racemes, spread- 

 ing, few-flowered, diverging. — Plate 24. 



The Greek word delphin is the original of, and means the 

 same as our word dolphin, and from it is derived the name of 

 this genus, on account of a fancied resemblance betwen the 

 shape of the flower, with its curved and projecting spur, and 

 that of the dolphin. From another supposed likeness between 

 the same peculiar appendage and the foot of a bird, is taken 

 also the common name, Larkspur. This is a well known 

 genus of annual and perennial plants, some of which are 

 among the most generally and easily cultivated garden flow- 

 ers. They are usually tall and showy, their flowers arranged 

 in a long terminal raceme, and their leaves are commonly 

 divided into numerous lobes. Their flowers are never yellow, 

 but always either blue, red, or purple, or some shade of these 

 colors mixed with white. Of the garden varieties, which are 

 very numerous, are several of the kind called the Bee Lark- 

 spur, " which look as if the insect from which they take their 

 name were glued to their inside," Rocket Larkspurs, and Sibe- 

 rian Larkspurs. The genus is so large that it has been divided 

 into sections, two of which contain only annual plants, and 

 have only one petal, drawn out into a tail, within the spur of 



