TRAVKRl THE COLUMBINE 137 



snatch it up b>' the roots and bear it away, too often to cast it by 

 the roadside before even reaching their destination, when their 

 passing whims had fled. For there is no flower, however beautiful, 

 in its native haunts, that does not lose its charm when taken away: 

 as Emerson wrote of the sparrow, 



"For I did not bring home the river and sky, 

 He sang to my ear, — they sang to my eye." 



But no cliff is too sheer, no rock too steep, to keep away the 

 visitors whom the columbine invites, with its flaunting yellow and 

 red tasselled bonnet nodding a welcome as they approach. Hither 

 come bees great and small, hawkmoths and humming birds on swift 

 wings and for them a feast is spread. 



"So in her red gown, trim and fine, 

 Merrily dances the columbine." 



Columbine or Aquilegia belongs to the crowfoot family. From 

 England our Pilgrim fathers brought the hardy perennial colum- 

 bine {Aquilegia vulgaris), a native of Europe and Asia, not knowing 

 that in their new home they would find the even more beautiful, 

 wild perennial, the red columbine {A. canadensis), the common 

 form native to New England and the Middle States, often erron- 

 eously called wild honeysuckle. In the western states two other 

 forms, the western columbine {A. formosa) and the Colorado 

 columbine {A. caerulea), are found, the latter having been voted 

 the state flower of Colorado. 



The five peaks of columbine's bonnet are formed from the five 

 petals, each a veritable horn of plenty, the tip end filled with 

 nectar. As the flowers bow their heads, this nectar probably flows 

 slowly down into the lower part of the horns, allowing bees and 

 other short-tongued insects to have a taste. The greedy bee, while 

 clinging to the tassel of stamens and pistils, becomes dusted on the 

 under side of her body with the ripe pollen, some grains of which 

 she is almost sure to leave on the stigmas of the next flower she 

 visits. But the "burly, dozing bumble bees" are less polite, and 

 often bite thru the tip end of the horn, thus getting the nectar 

 without repaying the flower by transporting some of its pollen. If 

 no insects should come, it is probable that cross-fertilization would 

 take place. But there is small chance of such an event, as long- 

 tongued visitors, the butterflies, hawk-moths and humming-birds, 



