NORTHERN SCARLET LARKSPUR. CHRISTMAS-HORNS.
Delphinium nudicaule, Torr. and Gray. Buttercup or Crowfoot Family.
Stems.—A foot or two high; naked or very few-leaved. Leaves.—One to three inches in diameter; deeply three- to five-cleft, or barely parted into obovate or cuneate divisions. Flowers.—Scarlet; in loose, open racemes; on pedicels two to four inches long. Sepals.—Five; petaloid; the upper prolonged upward into a spur containing the smaller spurs of the two upper petals. Spur six to nine lines long. Petals.—Usually four; the two lateral small, not spurred. Stamens.—Many. Pistils.—Mostly three; becoming divergent follicles. Hab.—The Coast Ranges from San Luis Obispo to Oregon.
Though not so intensely brilliant and striking as the southern scarlet larkspur, this is a delightful flower, the sight of which gracing some rocky cañon-wall or making flecks of flame amid the grass, gives us a thrill of pleasure. It would require no great stretch of the imagination to fancy these blossoms a company of pert little red-coated elves clambering over the loose, slender stems. In our childhood we used to hear them called "Christmas-horns."