CROWFOOT FAMILY 



entrance of each cornucopia while the flower continues 

 its honey call to the bee. After the stigmas are fer- 

 tilized the blossom fades, the nodding stem becomes 

 erect, and the group of seed-pods mature erect and 

 rigid at the summit of a stiff and straightened stalk- 

 Both the common and the botanical name of the 

 Columbine are puzzles; they seem so entirely without 

 rhyme or reason. Columbine is apparently derived 

 from columba, a dove, and Aguilegia from aguila, an 



eagle; but it requires a 

 great deal of imagination 

 to see any appropriate- 

 ness in either. If we take 

 Aguilegia as Water- 

 Bearer, the case is no 

 easier. Resemblance of 

 the petals when looked 

 at from a certain angle 

 to the heads of pigeons 

 around a dish, which was 

 a favorite device of ancient artists, may perhaps explain 

 the columba. This likeness is more apparent in the case 

 of the European species, Aguilegia vulgaris, than in our 

 native forms. Whatever the name, the flower has long 

 been a favorite. It is found as a border upon an illumi- 

 nated manuscript of the fifteenth century, and was at 

 one time combined with the red rose as a badge of the 

 royal house of Lancaster. The Wild Columbine was 

 sent to Hampton Court during the reign of Charles I. 

 An old play of Chapman's (1600) shows the Col- 

 umbine as an emblem of ingratitude: 



"What's that, a Columbine? 

 No, that thankless flower grows not in my garden." 



68 



English Columbine from an Angle 

 which Gives the Doves 



