25 



plant of Wyoming and northern Colorado. It is reported to be the 

 most troublesome of the poisonous plants of Wyoming. Eanchmen 

 suffer considerable loss from it, especially in early spring, when the 

 dark green tufts of foliage are conspicuous features of the otherwise dry 

 and barren landscape. 



PURPLE LARKSPUR. 



Delphinium menziesii DC. 



Description and habitat. — A somewhat hairy, tuberous-rooted peren- 

 nial, about a foot high, with a basal cluster of finely divided, long- 

 stemmed leaves, and a single column of showy blue flowers, which 

 appear at any time between April and July. The flowers are few in 

 number, but are extra large, being from 1 to 1J inches broad. This 

 species is found native on hillsides from the vicinity of San Francisco 

 to British Columbia, eastward to Idaho, and even as far as South Dakota. 

 In Montana it is very common throughout the State. In one case of 

 poisoning, reported by the botanist of the Montana Agricultural College, 

 over 500 sheep were affected, 250 of which were killed by the poison. 



LARKSPUR. 



Delphinium recurvatum Greene. 



Description and habitat. — A smooth, or slightly hairy, fleshy-rooted 

 perennial, 1 to 2 feet high, with a tuft of finely divided light-green leaves 

 and a long cluster of lavender-colored flowers, which appear in March 

 or April. The plant grows in moist, subsaline soil in California from 

 San Francisco Bay southward along the coast, and in the San Joaquin 

 Valley. It is particularly reported as fatal to animals in San Luis 

 Obispo County. 



LARKSPUR. 



Delphinium trolliifolium Gray. 



Other names: Cow poison (Humboldt County, Cal.). 



Description and habitat. — A rather smooth, half woody-rooted perennial, 

 2 feet high or more, with large, long stemmed basal leaves and a loose 

 cluster of blue (partly white) flowers, which appear from March to June. 

 The plant is common in shady places from Monterey, Cal., to British 

 Columbia. Reports of poisoning come from northern California and 

 Oregon. 



Other species. — These do not include all of the poisonous species. A 

 variety of I). decorum, native to the Sierra Nevada, has been suspected, 

 and D. scopulorum, a Rocky Mountain species, has been reported to the 

 Canadian department of agriculture as poisonous to cattle in the high 

 western prairies of Canada. 



Poisonous qualities. — The poisonous qualities of one of the above 

 species (D. trolliifolium) has been considerably questioned, and experi- 

 ments seem to show that neither the tops nor the roots of 24 plants 

 will produce serious results when fed to cows. This does not, however, 



