PAYSON—NORTH AMERICAN AQUILEGIA. 139 
1. Aquilegia brevistyla Hook. Fl. Bor. Amer. 1: 24. 1829. 
Aquilegia vulgaris L. err. det. Richards. Bot. App. Frankl. Journ. 740. 1823. 
Aquilegia vulgaris brevistyla A. Gray, Amer. Journ. Sci. II. 33: 243. 1862. 
Stems 40 to 80 cm. high, simple, glabrate or puberulent below, pubescent and often 
glandular above; basal leaves biternate, the leaflets petioluled, medium to large (17 
to 40 mm. long, 27 to 52 mm. wide), pubescent and glaucous beneath, the uppermost 
leaves simple and entire; flower 1.5 to 2 cm. long, 2.5 to3 cm. across, nodding; sepals 
blue, lanceolate, acute, slightly spreading, 13 to 16 mm. long, exceeding the lamine 
by 2 to 4 mm., these and the sepals exceeding the stamens; lamine yellowish white, 
longer than the spurs, oblong, more or less truncate at apex; spurs blue, 6 to 7 mm. long, 
stout and strongly hooked; styles 5 to 7 mm. long; ovaries pubescent; follicles about 2 
cm. long. 
Type Locauity: Western Canada. 
Range: South Dakota and Alberta, north to the Yukon. 
Rererences: Torr. & Gray, Fl. N. Amer. 1: 30. 1838. Robinson, Syn. FI. 1: 
43. 1895. Rydb. Contr. U. 8. Nat. Herb. 3: 482. 1896. Davis, Minn, Bot. Stud. 2: 
334. 1899. Britt. & Brown, Illustr. Fl. ed. 2. 2: 93. 1913. 
SPECIMENS EXAMINED. 
Yukon: Five Finger Rapids, Tarleton 91b. Mill Flat, Gorman 1049. 
Nortuwest Territory: Fort Good Hope, Mackenzie River, Taylor. 
Axperta: Banff, McCalla 2107. Calgary, Macoun 18069. 
Souru Daxora: Piedmont and Little Elk Creek, Rydberg 503. 
Aquilegia brevistyla belongs to the Old World type of columbines, and has much the 
aspect of A. vulgaris. Its range, like those of A. sazimontana and A. laramiensis, is 
peculiar in that it is widely separated from those of its relatives. These species 
seem to have become stranded, as it were, away from their fellows. Once, perhaps, 
this type was common throughout North America, but, if so, it has been superseded 
by the two more recent groups. 
2. Aquilegia vulgaris L. Sp. Pl. 533. 1753. 
Stems stout, finely pubescent throughout, 30 to 70 cm. high; basal and lower 
cauline leaves biternate; flowers 3.5 to 5 cm. broad and about as long, nodding, 
blue or purple to white; sepals spreading, ovate, acute, about 2.5 cm. long; lamine 
as long as the spurs, equaling the head of stamens, shorter than the sepals; spurs 
stout, much incurved, 10 to 13 mm. long; ovaries pubescent; styles 1.3 cm. long; 
follicles 2.5 cm. long, densely pubescent. 
It is this species that is seen most often in cultivation. The flowers in the horti- 
cultural varieties vary greatly in color and are often exceedingly double as a result 
of the multiplication of spurs or, in the stellate ones, of the assumption by most of 
the flower structures of the form of plane sepals. A native of Europe and Siberia, 
occasionally escaping from cultivation, especially in the Eastern States. 
3. Aquilegia saximontana Rydb.; Robinson, Syn. Fl. 1: 43. 1895. 
Aquilegia vulgaris brevistyla A. Gray, Amer. Journ. Sci. II. 833: 242. 1862, exclud- 
ing synonyms. 
Aquilegia brevistyla Hook. err. det. Coulter, Man. Rocky Mount. 10. 1885. 
Smooth and glabrous throughout; stems densely tufted, scarcely exceeding the 
leaves, 8 to 15 cm. high; basal leaves biternate, the cauline few (mostly reduced 
to bracts), the similar or simply ternate leaflets small (12 to 16 mm. long), sessile, 
thickish, broadly cuneate or truncate at base, the lobes rounded, flowers 1.5 to 2cm. 
long and about as wide, nodding; sepals blue, ovate-oblong, obtuse or acute; laminze 
white ‘or yellowish’’ (?), about 8 mm. long, obtuse; spurs blue, incurved or strongly 
hooked, about 6 mm. long; styles 3 to 4 mm. long; ovaries glabrous, follicles 5 or 6, 
1 cm. long, the tips slightly spreading. 
Type Locauity: Rocky Mountains of Colorado. 
