1874. ] 
AQUATICS.—CHAPTER XIII. 
73 
DELPHINIUM KETELEERII. 
WITH AN ILLUSTRATION. 
5 ^OR the specimen of this fine hardy perennial Larkspur represented in the 
gHuT accompanying plate, we are indebted to Mr. A. Waterer, of Knaphill. 
With him it grows three feet high, having bold deeply seven-parted leaves, 
ten inches across, with broad inciso-lobate segments; and flowers in dense 
spikes, nearly a foot long, having several short branches at the base. The blossoms 
are double, about an inch and a half across, cerulean-blue, the centre and base 
of the petals tinted with rose, a tuft of small white petals forming a white eye. 
This is a very desirable acquisition among the double-flowered hardy 
Delphiniums^ which are plants of a remarkably effective character. Of these 
double sorts we may just mention Madame Jacatot^ large, soft blue, or amethyst; 
Dr. Edwards, dark blue, a noble spike Princess of Wales^ sky-blue, with white 
centre; Madame le blue, shading off to pinkish violet. The most brilliant 
of them all, however, is D. sinense Jlore-pleno. which we were glad to see Mr. 
Waterer had taken in hand, as the Knaphill soil and situation may probably suit 
it well. It is perfectly hardy, a true herbaceous perennial, which may be readily 
increased in the spring, either by division or from cuttings, the latter, taken off 
when a few inches high, rooting freely. The colour is an intensely bright 
dazzling metallic blue. 
There are also some very fine single-flowered sorts of the type of D. formosum, 
deep blue, with white centre ; and a very effective new one, raised by Mr. Ware, 
called Cambridge., of a pale grey-blue, with black centre, which is distinct in 
character, and really attractive.—T. M. 
AQUATICS.— Chapter XIH. 
jN the Limnocharis Humboldtii we have a very beautiful tender or stove Aquatic 
which has the great recommendation that it is evergreen; the foliage is of the 
brightest green, with the veins running longitudinally through the broadly- 
oval blade, which is generally from 2 in. to 3 in. long, and from in. to 2 in. 
broad. The leaves float upon the surface, and to this end the mid-rib is very much 
thickened on the under-side, and appears filled with a network of air-cells. The 
leaf-stalks are usually about 6 in. or 8 in. long, but if the plant is placed in deeper 
water, their length will be increased accordingly. In its flowering this plant is 
remarkable, as it continues to blossom abundantly through most of the summer 
months; the individual flowers, it is true, do but last one day, but to make up for 
this there is always a numerous succession on the morrow. The flowers are tri- 
petalous, of a beautiful yellow colour, having a transparent delicacy about them 
which it is difficult to describe; they bear some resemblance to those of the 
lovely Calochortus hiteus., but as many may not have seen this flower, I will name 
one other which everybody must have seen, viz., the Eschscholtzia californica., to 
which it has a marked likeness. The purple fringe of brown barren stamens 
which surrounds the fertile ones is most lovely. 
3rd SERIES,—VII. ' H 
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