DELPHINIUM STAPHISAGRIA -PALMATED LARKSPUR, OR STAVESACRE. 
Class XIII. POLYANDRIA. Order III. TRIGYNIA. 
Natural Order, RANUNCULAC E^.-THE CROW-FOOT TRIBE. 
Fig. (a) represents the nectary ; (5) the stamens ; (c) the capsules. 
This handsome plant is a native of Provence, Languedoc, and many other parts of the south of Europe. 
It is a biennial, and was cultivated here by Gerarde in 1596 ; it flowers from April to August. 
Stavesacre grows to the height of one or two feet ; the stem is round, downy, erect and simple. The 
lower leaves are nearly as large as those of the vine, palmated, and divided into seven lobes, which are ob- 
! long, ovate, veined, downy, sometimes acutely indented, and of a pale green colour: those on the upper 
part of the stem are gradually smaller, usually 5-lobed, and supported on long downy footstalks of the 
colour of the stem. The flowers are bluish or purplish, supported on long footstalks, and forms an elegant 
spiciform raceme at the extremity of the stem. The calyx is petaloid and deciduous, the upper sepal open, 
extended behind into a long tubular spur : the corolla is usually divided into four petals placed in front within 
the row or sepals ; the two superior are narrow, small, and at the base drawn out into spurs like that of the 
sepal in which they are both inclosed; the outer two are roundish and plaited at the edges. The filaments 
are numerous, awl-shaped, and crowned -with oblong yellow anthers ; the germens are three, superior, close 
together, tapering, downy, and furnished with short filiform styles, terminated by simple stigmas. The 
three capsules are ovate-oblong, tapering, pointed, with one valve opening internally, and contains many 
rough, brown, triangular seeds. 
Qualities and Chemical Properties. — The seeds of this species of Delphinium are rough and 
blackish without, and of a light yellowish colour within. Their odour is slightly foetid : to the taste they are 
| intensely bitter, acrid and nauseous, and when masticated powerfully excite the salivary secretion and in- 
j flame the fauces. MM. Lassaigne and Feneulle have discovered in the stavesacre a vegetable alkali which 
they have named delphinia, from a supposition that the acrid qualities of the whole family depended upon 
this principle : an opinion, however, which has not been confirmed by the analysis of other plants belong- 
ing to it. 
It is thus obtained : The seeds, deprived of their husks and ground, are to be boiled in a small quantity 
of distilled water, and then pressed in a cloth ; the decoction is to be filtered, and boiled for a few minutes with 
pure magnesia ; it must be re-filtered, and the residuum left on the filter ; when well washed, it is to be 
boiled with highly rectified alcohol, which dissolves out the alkali, and, by evaporation, it is obtained as a 
white pulverulent substance, presenting a few crystalline points. 
It may be obtained also by acting with dilute sulphuric acid on the seeds, unshelled but well bruised ; 
the solution is to be precipitated by subcarbonate of potash, and the precipitate acted on by alcohol : but, 
obtained in this way, it is very impure. 
Delphine, when pure, is crystalline whilst wet, but, on drying, rapidly becomes opaque by exposure to 
air. Its taste is bitter and acrid. When heated it smells ; and, on cooling, becomes hard and brittle like 
resin. If heated more highly it blackens, and is decomposed. Water dissolves a very small portion of it. 
Alcohol and ether dissolve it very readily. The alcoholic solution renders syrup of violets green, and restores 
the blue tint of litmus, reddened by an acid. It forms neutral salts with the acids, which are very soluble ; 
the alkalies precipitate the delphine in a white gelatinous state, like alumine. 
Sulphate of Delphine evaporates in the air, does not crystallize, but becomes a transparent mass like 
gum. It dissolves in alcohol and water, and has a bitter acrid taste. In the voltaic current it is decom- 
posed, , giving up its alkali at the negative pole. 
