THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 123 



thrives in a variety of soils. In the wild state it grows on 

 rocks, in meadows and on wet banks. The best of the West- 

 ern species is a fine blue-and-white form from the Rocky 

 mountain region known as Aqiiilegia coerulea. It is the spe- 

 cies chosen as the State flower of Colorado. In his Mono- 

 graph E. B. Payson writes of it: "In the Canadian Zone, 

 among the aspens, spruces, and firs, it is not uncommon to 

 see a hillside meadow so completely covered with A. coerulea 

 as to hide all other vegetation and to make it seem a fairy- 

 land of huge, dancing blue and white stars." This species 

 is illustrated in our frontispiece from a photograph kindly 

 lent by Mrs. M. E. Soth. A peculiarity of the flowers of this 

 species is that they are not drooping as are those of the com- 

 mon species of Europe and Eastern America. This erect 

 habit is not, however, restricted to this single species. Several 

 of the Western species have it. 



Aquilegia chrysantha is a yellow-flowered form with long 

 spreading spurs that is often seen in cultivation and is scarce- 

 ly less popular than the l)lue-flowered species. More than 

 a dozen other kinds are cultivated but the majority are either 

 forms of, or hybrids between, the species already mentioned. 

 The plants mix readily and if one wishes to obtain pure seeds 

 or to keep a particular strain from running out, the plants 

 must be isolated from the others. 



The columbines are perennials but some behave much 

 like biennials and often disappear after the second year. 

 The columbines seem midway between the true annuals and 

 the ordinarv perennials. Like annuals, however, they readily 

 grow from seeds and in some cases come up with such spon- 

 taneity as to make them almost weeds. Seed production is 

 a critical period in the life of any plant and many species do 

 not survive it. Removing the seed-pods as soon as they form 



