Blue to Purple Flowers 261 



BLUE COLUMBINE 



Aqiiilcgia brcvistyla. Crowfoot Family 



Stems: slender, erect, branching. Leaves: basal ones biternate, lobed 

 and crenate; stem-leaves few, nearly sessile. Flowers: small, nodding, 

 blue and white; spurs short. 



The smallest of the mountain Columbines, it ma}^- easily 

 be recognized by its mauvish-blue and creamy blossoms and 

 its very short styles. It is a more compact and therefore 

 less graceful flower than A. formosa or A. Havescens. 



The Columbine was first introduced into England from 

 the Virginia Colony in the reign of Charles I, when a young 

 botanist sent it as a gift to the great Tradescant, gardener 

 and herbalist to the King. 



MOUNTAIN LARKSPUR 



Delphinium Brownii. Crowfoot Family 



Stems: tall from a fascicle of thick roots. Leaves: numerous, mostly 

 orbicular in outline, five-to-seven parted, the lower into cuneate and 

 the upper into narrower-cleft and laciniate divisions, petioled. Flow- 

 ers: racemes manj'^-flowered on short erect pedicels. 



The tall Mountain Larkspur is a very handsome plant. 

 It is nearly always a rich purple hue, but very occasionally 

 it bears white or pinkish-mauve blossoms. Standing from 

 one to four feet high, these Delphiniums (so called from 

 their fancied resemblance to a dolphin) may be found in 

 immense quantities in the high alpine meadows, their long 

 flower racemes towering up above a mass of deeply cleft 

 dark green foliage. Each flower grows on a tiny upright 

 stalk attached to the main stem, and has four small whitish 

 petals, the upper pair smooth and developed backwards, and 

 enclosed in the spur of the calyx, and the two lower ones 

 deeply notched and very hairy. The sepals are five in num- 



