664 POLYANDRIA. TRIGYNIA. Delphinium. 
TRIGYNIA. 
DELPHIN'IUM.* Calyx none: Petals five or six: Nectary 
cloven, horn-shaped : Caps, leguminous, many-seeded. 
D. consoi/ida. Capsule solitary : nectary of one leaf: stem subdi¬ 
vided, spreading. 
Riv. Pent. 124, Delphinium — Kniph. 2— (E. Rot. 1839. E.)— Ludw. 54— 
Blackw: 26— FI. Dan. 683— Lonic. i. 182. 2— Fuchs. 27— Trag. 569— J. 
B. ii. a. 210— Dod. 252. 2— Lob. Obs. 427. 1, and Ic. i. 739. 2— Ger. Em. 
1033. 5—Ger. 923. 4— Park. Par. 279. 3 —Dod. 252. 1 —Lob. Obs. 426. 2, 
and Ic. i. 739. 1— Ger. Em. 1082. 1. 
(Stem one to two feet high. E.) Branches cylindrical. Leaves divided 
down to the base into three or five parts, which are deeply cut into 
slender strap-shaped segments often forked at the end. Floral-leaves 
two, strap-shaped, opposite. Petals irregularly scolloped at the edge; 
the lateral ones broadest; the uppermost spear-shaped, not blunter 
than the rest, rather shorter than the nectary, but projecting backwards 
into a conical tube. Nectary placed within the upper petal. Anthers 
double, yellow. Germen conical, wholly. Styles none. Summits two, 
white, small, fleshy, flatted, and lying close together. Flowers blue; 
valuable to sheep. (Mr. Salisbury considers it highly estimable. He also states it to be a 
favourite food of deer. Mr. Holdich affirms Burnet to be valuable as a winter food, from 
its warm and stimulating nature, especially combined with turnips, and by no means 
objectionable in hay. Mr. Sinclair states that it will succeed in soils unsuitable to Lucern, 
sainfoin, or clover; that its hardy nature, keeping green all winter, and its early growth, 
render it desirable. Another authority in favour of Burnet may be found in Encyc. Brit, 
where it is stated to “ prove an excellent winter pasture when hardly any thing else 
vegetates. Other advantages are : it makes good butter ; it never blows or swells cattle ; 
it is fine pasture for sheep; and will flourish well on poor, light, sandy, or stony soils, or 
even on dry chalk hills. The cultivation is neither hazardous nor expensive, the land 
being prepared as for turnips. The severest frost never injures this plant, and the oftener 
it is fed the thicker are its leaves, which spring constantly from its root, and their flat 
circular spread will prevent the growth of weeds.” A Coccus may he found about the roots 
of Burnet, w’hich was formerly used for dyeing silk and wool a rose colour. In Britain it 
is superseded by the Mexican Cochineal, but the Moors are said still to make use of it. As 
may be remarked of the Snapdragon and some few other plants, so our present species 
possesses in an extraordinary degree the faculty of preserving its verdure, and flourishing 
amid surrounding aridity and exhaustion. It is probable that such plants, observes the 
author of the <( Journal of a Naturalist,” have the power of imbibing that insensible 
moisture, which arises from the earth even in the driest weather, or from the air 
which passes over them. The immense evaporation proceeding from the earth, even in 
the hottest season, supplies the atmosphere constantly with humidity; and as every square 
foot of this element can sustain eleven grains of water, an abundant provision is made for 
every demand. In noting this phenomenon, we cannot but perceive, in the perpetual 
transmission of these refreshing dews of heaven from one portion of matter to another, for 
mutual sustentation, a beneficent ordination of Providence, and a beautiful illustration of 
that compensatory system which pervades the universe, and is not even limited to the ma¬ 
terial world. In the present instance, without this unceasing process of evaporation and 
restitution, this never-failing supply of circulating medium, as it were, all nature would 
stagnate: neither animal nor vegetable life could long subsist. And thus in the moral 
world, the irreversible decree of mutual dependance, by enforcing an endless interchange of 
reciprocal good offices, cements the social compact, and promotes the harmony of the 
whole. E.) 
* (From S eXpviov ; from a fancied resemblance of the unopened flower to the Dolphin 
of the ancients, as displayed in heraldry. 
