E. hyemàlis, Salisb. Dwarf; flowers cup-shaped, 1½´ in diameter; petals shorter than the stamens.—Near Philadelphia. (Adv. from Eu.)
16. AQUILÈGIA, Tourn. Columbine.
Sepals 5, regular, colored like the petals. Petals 5, all alike, with a short spreading lip, produced backward into large hollow spurs, much longer than the calyx. Pistils 5, with slender styles. Pods erect, many-seeded.—Perennials, with 2–3-ternately compound leaves, the leaflets lobed. Flowers large and showy, terminating the branches. (Name from aquilegus, water-drawing.)
1. A. Canadénsis, L. (Wild Columbine.) Spurs nearly straight; stamens and styles longer than the ovate sepals.—Rocks, common. April–June.—Flowers 2´ long, scarlet, yellow inside (or rarely all over), nodding, so that the spurs turn upward, but the stalk becomes upright in fruit.
2. A. brevístyla, Hook. Flowers small, blue or purplish or nearly white; spurs incurved.—Red River valley, Dak.; Rocky Mts., northward.
A. vulgàris, L., the common Garden Columbine, of Europe, with hooked spurs, is beginning to escape from cultivation in some places.
17. DELPHÍNIUM, Tourn. Larkspur.
Sepals 5, irregular, petal-like; the upper one prolonged into a spur at the base. Petals 4, irregular, the upper pair continued backward into long spurs which are enclosed in the spur of the calyx, the lower pair with short claws; rarely only 2, united into one. Pistils 1–5, forming many-seeded pods in fruit.—Leaves palmately divided or cut. Flowers in terminal racemes. (Name from Delphin, in allusion to the shape of the flower, which is sometimes not unlike the classical figures of the dolphin.)
[*] Perennials, indigenous; pistils 3.
1. D. exaltàtum, Ait. (Tall Larkspur.) Stem slender, 2–5° high; leaves deeply 3–5-cleft, the divisions narrow wedge-form, diverging, 3-cleft at the apex, acute; racemes wand-like, panicled, many-flowered; flowers purplish-blue, downy; spur straight; pods erect.—Rich soil, Penn. to Minn. and southward. July.