Plate 114. 
TWO-COLOURED BEE LARKSPUR. 
Delphinium bicolor grandiflorum . 
All who have had to arrange flowers, either for a parterre or 
a bouquet, know how difficult it is to obtain good blues for 
either one or the other. While reds, and yellows, and their 
complementary colours are found in abundance, and violets, 
lilacs, purples, etc., into which blue largely enters, are by no 
means uncommon, pure blue flowers are very rare; and hence 
the accession during the past few years of a race of perennial 
Larkspurs of the dazzling blue of formosmn , Rendersoni, etc., 
has been hailed as a great boon. In our last volume, we figured 
one of these raised by Messrs. Fraser; and Mr. Andrews has 
faithfully represented in our present Plate another of still 
greater brilliancy. 
Delphinium bicolor grandiflorum (a garden variety of the for - 
mosum group) was raised by Messrs. Downie, Laird, and Laing, 
of Stanstead Park and Edinburgh, and exhibited by them at the 
June exhibition of the Royal Horticultural Society, and is thus 
noticed in their Proceedings:— U A showy variety, with large 
flowers, in which the sepals were of a dark blue, and the petals 
creamy white, contrasting strongly with the darker colour sur¬ 
rounding them. This was commended.” We may add, that 
it is very free*flowering, and that it possesses the desirable qua¬ 
lity of coming true from seed; and as it seems to be dwarfer 
habit, it is likely to be very valuable as a border dower and for 
bedding. We are informed by the raisers that it was obtained 
by careful selection from seedlings of formosum , continued suc¬ 
cessively for four years, and is therefore likely to have the de¬ 
sirable qualities of that variety, with increased beauty in the 
spikes, and greater vigour in the habit of the plant. 
The Delphinium flourishes well in any rich garden soil, espe- 
