166 RANUNCULACEAE. 



upper leaves reduced to small bracts; flowers larger and stamens longer; 

 sepals rellexed ; petal spurs usually spreading more widely and the throat 

 nearly twice the diameter of the throat in uo. 1, and more obliquely trun- 

 cate; styles very long. — (Probably A. eximia Planch., not Borbas.) 



Rocky places along streams from Howell Mt., Jos. P. Tracy, to Marin 

 and Mendocino cos. Pare. June-Aug. 



4. DELPHINIUM L. Larkspur. 

 Herbs, ours perennial, with palmately divided leaves. Flowers in terminal 

 racemes. Sepals 5, irregular, the upper one produced into a spur at the base. 

 Petals 4, in pairs, with small spreading usually oblique blade on a claw of 

 about equal length, the upper developed backward into nectary -bearing spurs 

 and concealed within the spur of the calyx. Pistils in ours 3, seldom more, 

 becoming many-seeded follicles. (Greek delphinion, larkspur, derived from 

 delphin, the flowers of some species resembling the classical figures of the 

 dolphin.) 



Flowers blue, white, pink or lavender. 



Roots woody-fibrous or fusiform-thickened. 



Lower leaves 4 to 7 in. in diameter; flowers whitish; sepals externally villous all 



over 1. D. calif ornicum. 



Leaves mostly 1 to 3 in. in diameter; sepals finely pubescent or nearly glabrous, 

 not villous. 

 Racemes commonly rather short and few-flowered; pedicels spreading; sepals 7 to 



10 lines long 2. D. variegation. 



Raceme commonly elongated and many-flowered; pedicels erect; sepals 4 to 7 



lines long 3. D. Itesperium. 



Root a more or less globose tuber; flowers usually small 4. D. decorum. 



Flowers red 5. D. nudicaulc. 



1. D. calif ornicum T. & G. Coast Larkspur. Stout, 2% to 7 ft. high, 

 sparsely pubescent, many-leaved; leaves very large, 4 to 6 in. broad, 2 to 4 in. 

 long, deeply parted into 3 to 5 segments; segments incised, sinuses of the 

 primary divisions mostly closed in the lower leaves, open in the upper; racemes 

 dense, % to l 1 /^ ft. long; pedicels 4 to 7 lines long, or the lowest somewhat 

 more; bractlets very long and slender; flowers rather densely pilose-pubescent, 

 white or whitish or somewhat purplish inside, never fully expanded; upper 

 petals entire or very slightly emarginate with a woolly tuft at apex on the 

 inside; lower pair bifid, woolly on the outside; spur mostly longer than the 

 sepals; follicles oblong, turgid, hardly, if at all, diverging. 



Low hills near the coast: San Francisco north to Pt. Reyes. 



2. D. variegatum T. & G. Sacramento Larkspur. Commonly about 

 \y± to \y> ft. high, more or less hispidulous toward the base; leaves dis- 

 sected into oblong mostly obtusish mucronulate diverging segments; raceme 

 tew (about 1 to 10) -flowered, loose, with ascending or spreading pedicels usu- 

 ally 1 in. long or more, the lower pedicels sometimes much elongated; sepals 

 deep but bright blue, 7 to 12 lines long; spur stoutish, the tip often slightly 

 curved; lower petals large, elliptic or roundish, commonly colored like the 

 sip.ils; upper petals obliquely oblong, Avhitish; capsule oblong, rather turgid, 

 7 to 10 lines long, hispid-pubescent; seeds with brownish-winged angles. 



Monterey north through the ('oast Ranges to Napa Valley and the Sacramento 

 Valley. Var. apiculatum Greene. Flowers on shorter pedicels in a compact 

 Cylindrical raceme. — Foothills on west side of the Sacramento Valley. 



3. D. hesperium Gray. Western Larkspur. Stem commonly simple, 1% 

 to '■'< ft. high, arising from a cluster of thick-fibrous roots or a single woody 

 tap-root; herbage short-pubescent; leaves 2 to ;i times palmately cleft into 



