39 POLYANDRIA— PENTAGYNIA. Aqiiilegia. 



appearance truly wild. Rev. Edward Mliitehead, Fellow of Corpus 

 Christi college, Oxford. 1819. 



Perennial. June, July. 



Boot tapering. Stem erect, simple, leafy, clothed with minute 

 close hairs, and terminating in a solitary, simple, upright cluster 

 of large dark-hXueJlowers, without scent. Leaves alternate, on 

 short stalks, divided to the base into 5 lobes, cut into numerous, 

 linear, acute, somewhat revolute segments ; nearly smooth on 

 both sides ; paler beneath 5 marked on the upper side with a 

 furrow along the course of the mid-rib. Our plant is certainly 

 the original Napellus, from which Prof. DeCandolle has sepa- 

 rated several formerly-supposed varieties, having broader leaves, 

 but of w hich he very candidly expresses his doubts, whether they 

 are good species. At any rate I would here retain the old well- 

 known specific name, though Linnaeus, who made no distinc- 

 tion between these plants, has in his herbarium for Napellus the 

 A. neuhergense of DeCandolle, which moreover is figured, under 

 his inspection, in the Stockholm Transactions for 1739, t. 2, 

 as A. Napellus, and given as such by Ehrhart in his PI. Of. 87. 

 A. paniculatum of DeCandolle, which is what Storck happened 

 to make use of, and to publish, for Napellus, and which is Hal- 

 ler's 71. 1 198, belongs to A. Cammarum of Linnaeus. 



273. AQUILEGIA. Columbine. 



Linn. Gen. 275. Juss. 234. Fl. Br. 578. Tourn. t. 2 12. Lam. 

 t.ASS. Gcerln. t. US. 



Nat. Ord. see n. 270. 



Cat. none. Pet. 5, inferior, ovate, mostly pointed, nearly 

 flat, equal, spreading. Ned 5, equal, alternate with the 

 petals, each of them tubular, gradually dilated upwards, 

 oblique at the mouth, the outer margin ascending, the 

 inner attached to the receptacle ; their lower portion ex- 

 tended into a long tapering spur, obtuse at the extremity. 

 Filam. numerous, 30 to 40, awl-shaped, erect; the outer 

 ones shortest; innermost abortive, dilated and corrugated, 

 closely enfolding the germens. Anth. terminal, heart- 

 shaped, erect. Germ. 5, superior, ovate-oblong, tapering 

 into awl-shaped upright styles, with simple stigmas. Caps, 

 (follicles) 5, cylindrical, pointed, parallel, straight, of 1 

 valve, bursting at the inner side downwards. Seeds nume- 

 rous, ovate, smooth, keeled, at the edges of the capsule. 



Perennial herbs, with fibrous roots. Leaves once or twice 

 ternate, bluntly lobed and cut ; the lower ones on long 

 stalks. Fl. terminal, drooping, blue, purplish, scarlet, 

 partly yellow, or green, the former colours varying to 



