171 
DELPHINIUM SINENSE, var. FLORE-PLENO. 
(CHINESE LARKSPUR; DOUBLE-FLOWERED VAR1ETV.) 
CLASS. ORDER. 
POLYANDRIA. TR1GYNIA. 
NATURAL ORDER. 
RANUNCULACE7E. 
Generic Character.- — Vide Vol. v. p. 265. 
Specific Character. — Plant most probably annual. Stems scarce, growing about a foot high, branching 
freely, covered witli short down. Leaves with three principal divisions, each subdivided into a 
number of irregular linear-acute segments, glabrous above, paler green and very slightly pubescent 
beneath. Bracts two or three inches below the flowers, subulate, hairy like the steins. Flowers 
large, single, bright blue, elevated solitarily on long, rigid, erect peduncles. 
Far. flore-pleno. — Plant having a greater number of stems, perennial. Flowers semi-double, or 
double, and of a rather darker colour. 
If we except the double garden varieties of one or two of the most common 
species, Delphiniums are mainly remarkable not only for the fine profusion in 
which their flowers are produced, but for the brilliant blue colour of these latter. 
Indeed, they appear to present a richer diversity of the shades referrible to this 
one type than any other equally familiar genus ; for while some of the sorts have 
pale sapphire or cerulean blossoms, many are of the deepest and most intense 
lapis-lazuli which can be conceived. D. grandiflorum, is an especially magnificent 
species ; and its flowers, when liberally borne, are too dazzling to be gazed upon 
without greatly weakening the visual nerves. 
Of all that we are acquainted with, however, the species of which the subject 
of our figure is a double-flow 0 **" 1 variety, has blossoms of the largest size and the 
brightest hue. When sown early in the spring, so as to form a dense bed of 
bloom during il summer months, it creates an effect too striking to be described. 
It is as if a considerable patch of purer and deeper ether than the far-famed Italian 
skies can boast were transferred to earth, awhile to grace its surface, and then to 
melt away into its native regions. And though the tint of our present plant's 
inflorescence is not so light, ethereal, and azure-like, its gorgeousness, and the 
elegant double character with which it is associated, render it, if possible, still more 
alluring. 
From whatever cause the predilection may spring, it is certain that double 
