SLIM LARKSPUR 
Delphinium depauperatum Nuttall 
The brilliant color of slim larksputs in mountain meadows filled 
us with delight, and when they wete in company with Alberta paint- 
brush, but-forget-me-not, and heliotrope valerian, all in full bloom, 
we wete able to appreciate the full beauty of nature’s garden. In some 
places slim larkspur occurred in pute stands so that the meadows 
wete blue with them. They are poisonous to cattle, which eat the 
young shoots in early spring, and the districts whete they gtow can- 
not be used for pasture. The name Delphinium was given to this genus 
of plants from a fancied resemblance of the flower to a dolphin. The 
larksputs belong to the Buttercup Family. 
Slim larkspur ranges from Montana to California and Oregon and 
northward to Alberta. | 
The plants sketched were obtained near Wild Flower Camp, 
twenty-five miles by trail from Lake Louise, Alberta, at an altitude 
of 6,000 feet. 
PLATE 384 
