BUTTERCUP FAMILY. 



195 



tion doubtful, said by some to be from the Latin aquila, an eagle, on 

 account of the claw-like spurs.) 



1. A. truncata F. & M. COLUMBINE. Glabrous, 2 to 3.] ft. high; 

 leaves biternate, the leaflets roundish in outline, broadly cuneate at 

 base, at summit incised, the segments lobed or crenately toothed; 

 petioles long, those of the radical leaves 1 ft. long; flowers scarlet, 

 tinged with yellow, pendulous in anthesis; spurs, therefore, erect, £ in. 

 long, somewhat exceeding in length the widely spreading sepals, and 

 truncate at the orifice, the blade being almost none; follicles nearly 

 1 in. long, conspicuously veined, the long styles persistent. 



Moist, shaded places in the lower hills, or at middle altitudes in the 

 mountains, almost throughout California; not in the inner Coast 

 Ranges. May-J une. 



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-color. 

 Roots woody-fibrous or fusiform-thickened. 

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



villous all over 1. D. C'alifornicum. 



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. varieyatum. 



Raceme commonly elongated and many-flowered; pedicels erect; sepals 



4 to 7 lines long 3. D. hesperium. 



Root a more or less globose tuber. 

 Follicles % in. or less long, erect; flowers usually small . 4. D. decorum. 

 Follicles Y<i in. or more long, widely spreading; flowers few and large. . . . 



5. D. Menziesii. 



Flowers red 6. D. nudicauk. 



1. D. Californicum T. & G. Coast Larkspur. Stout, 2j 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 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 pairs bifid, woolly on the outside; spur mostly longer than the 

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



Throughout our region toward the coast, but not common, flower* 2 

 ing in Mar. and Apr. San Francisco, Bolander, I860; Berkeley 

 Hills, Greene, 1883; lower petioles often 8 to 10 in. long. 



