MOUNTAIN FLOWERS 



191 



BLUE COLUMBINE 



Aqidlegia brevistyla. 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 may 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. flavesce7is. 



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 herbaHst to the King. 



MOUNTAIN LARKSPUR 



Delphinium Bi'ownii. 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. Flowers: 

 racemes many-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 

 six feet high, these Delphiiiiimts (so called from their fancied 

 resemblance to a dolphin) may be found in immense quanti- 

 ties 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 number and of a lovely intense blue 

 colour ; the top one is prolonged at the back into a hollow 

 spur, and the others are plain. 



