Tas. 6552. 
AQUILEGTA formosa. 
Native of the Rocky Mountains and California. 
Nat. Ord. Ranuncviacem.—Tribe HELLEBORER. 
Genus Aquizeeta, Linn. ; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. i. p. 8.) 
AQuiLEet1a formosa ; caule gracili erecto superne puberulo 1-3-pedali, foliis radica- 
libus biternatis segmentis ultimis cuneatis obtuse 3-5-fidis 2 -lobulatis, floribus 
1-2 poll. diam. lateritiis v. rubris sepalis intus petalisque aureis, sepalis ovato- 
lanceolatis acuminatis, petalorum limbo sepalis dimidio breviore orbiculari v. 
late ovato-orbiculari apicibus rotundatis v. apiculatis, marginibus recurvis, 
calcare recto brevi v. elongato apice vix incurvo. Tab. 6552 A. 
A. formosa, Fisch. in DC. Prodr, vol. i. p. 50; Torr. et Gr, Fl. N. Am. vol.i.p. 30. 
Var. flavescens, floribus aureis. A. flavescens, Wats. Bot. Calif. vol. i. Tab. 
6552 B. 
The more the American and Eastern Asiatic Columbines 
are brought under cultivation, the more difficult does it 
become to distinguish the species proposed by Russian and 
American authors ; and I very much suspect that ultimately 
there will be recognized only one or two sportive forms of 
the genus. Of the characters chiefly relied upon for dis- 
tinguishing the forms, none are constant, and least of all 
the two most conspicuous, the length of the spur and 
colour of the flower. In respect of colour, and, indeed, all 
other characters, A. formosa comes nearest to A. canadensis, 
Linn. (Tab. nost. 246), which varies from red to orange 
and yellow, from which it differs in the larger flowers and 
in the much longer and more slender spurs, and in the very 
open perianth. From A. leptoceras of Nuttall (not of Fischer) 
(Tab. nost. 4407), and its var. chrysantha (Tab. nost. 6073), 
it differs in the much smaller petals, which are rounded, 
with the limb more cupped, and not dilated beyond the 
middle, and especially in the much fewer stamens of more 
unequal length, and more protruded from the flower. 
A. leptoceras has indeed been referred by Watson, in the 
Botany of California, to the lovely A. carulea (Tab. nost. 
9477), the pride of the Rocky Mountain Flora, whose 
flowers vary in colour from the most beautiful azure blue 
APRIL Ist, 1881. 
