01' ORNAMENTAL PERENNIALS. 
35 
GENUS XV. 
DELPHINIUM, Toum. THE LARKSPUR. 
Lin. Sysl. POLYANDRIA TRIGYNIA. 
Gevbric Character. — Calyx deciduous, petal-like, irregular, with the upper sepal drawn out below into a spur. Petals four, two upper ones 
drawn out at the base into appendages witliin tlie spur. (G. Don.) 
Description. &c. — The flower, of the Larkspur exhibits some of those strange anomalies in its construction 
which are so often found in plants belonging to the order Ranunculacese. The calyx and the corolla are 
confounded together ; or rather, the calyx is the most ornamental part, while the petals are so small and so 
obscurely placed as to appear of little consequence. The plants are generally tall and showy-looking, with the 
flowers disposed in a long terminal raceme. The leaves are generally deeply cut, particularly the lower ones. 
The species are annual and perennial plants, natives of temperate climates, and all quite hardy in British gardens. 
The flowers are always blue, red, or purple, or of some shade or combination of these colours mixed with white, 
but they are never yellow. The name of Delphinium, which is derived from the Greek word for Dolphin, and 
the English name of Larkspur, both allude to the shape of the flower, which is very singular, from its projecting 
spur. The genus being a very large one, it is divided into sections, the first two of which contain only annual 
plants, and have the tail or appendage of only one petal in the spur ; while the other sections, which contain no 
annuals, have the appendages of two petals in the spur. In one of these, Delphinastrum, the species are all 
perennials, and the flowers have their petals more or less bearded ; this section is divided into the Siberian 
Larkspurs, and the Bee Larkspurs. The other section, Staphisagria, consists of biennials, which have the petals 
not bearded, and the carpels ventricose. There are only three species iu this division. The leaves of the 
Larkspur are poisonous, and it is said that no insects will touch them. 
SECTION DELPHINASTRUM. 
I I. SIBERIAN LARKSPURS— LIMB OF THE LOWER PETALS ENTIRE. 
1.— DELPHINIUM GRANDIFLORUM, Dec. THE LARGE-FLOWERED LARKSPUR. 
3 album, G. Don. Flowers wliite. — D. g. 4 flore-pleno, G. Don. 
Flowers double. — D. g. 5 Fiaclierii, Reich. Flowers pinkish. 
SpEciric Character, — Leaves palmately many-parted into distant 
linear lobes ; pedicels longer than the bracteas ; petals shorter than 
the calyx, two lower ones somewhat orbicular, with obliquely inflexed 
entire borders ; racemes spreading, few-flowered, diverging. 
SvNoNYMB. — D. viigatum, Jacq. 
Engravings. — Hot. M,ig. 1. 1686, of the species ; and of the variety, 
Hot. Reg. t. 472 ; Lodd. Hot. Cab. t. 71 ; and out fig. 1 in Plate 10. 
Varieties. — D. g. 2 cliinensc, Fisch. ; P. chinensis, Lodd. ; 
D. sinense, fl.-pl. Paxt. Mag. of Bat. 7, p. 171. This is the variety 
represented in our figure. It is taller and stiffer than the species, 
and when raised from seed it genei-ally flowers tlie first year. — D. g. 
Description, &c. — This is a very showy kind of Larkspur, and it has the advantage of flowering from June 
to September. It is a native of Siberia, and it was introduced in 1816. The flowers are very large ; and the 
sepals are of an intense blue spotted with dull red, the outer spur being greenish. The petals are much darker ; 
two of them are very small, upright, and fleshy ; and the two others are nearly round, with an oblique claw, 
having a small hook at the base, near which is a slightly-bearded yellow spot. The blue of the flower is of an 
F 2 
