California is rich in beautiful larkspurs, but the species are very difficult of determination and not well defined as yet. We have two well-marked scarlet species; but confusion still reigns among the blue and the white. Some of the latter are poisonous to sheep and cattle, causing great losses to the herds every year in some localities.
Among the blue larkspurs are some of our handsomest spring flowers. Their slender wands, covered with magnificent large blossoms, rise abundantly on every side upon some of the mesas of our seashore, making charming flower-gardens upon the plains. They are so lavishly bestowed that every comer may gather his fill and still none be missed. In color they are matchless—of the richest of Mazarin blue and purple-blue.
Other species are to be found upon the slopes of interior valleys and scattered all through the Coast Ranges and the Sierra foothills. In midsummer, which is the vernal springtime of the mountains, many lovely species deck the alpine meadows and brooksides.
The Spanish-Californians have a pretty title for these blossoms—"espuela del caballero"—"the cavalier's spur."
![[BLUE LARKSPUR.]](#3624944100741987669_f104.png.id-1466266250999788790.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}