AQUILEGIA. 
shorter than the sepals, and the spur is either straight or just slightly 
—incurved, the whole bloom being considerably smaller than those of the 
two last (and of A. pyrenaica), about an inch across, and purple. It 
ranges all along the Maritime Alps and down through the Apennines. 
A. alpina, Sternb. (A. Bauhini, Schott ; A. Portae, Huter ; A. viscosa, 
Rchb.) has the diminished purple flowers of the last, but is densely 
viscid all over, the petals being a trifle shorter than the sepals, and 
the spur (which is smooth and straight, or a little incurving) equal in 
length to the blade of the petal. A. thalictrifolia seems to be yet 
another synonym of this, described as being “ pilose,” with leaves 
taller and wider and more splayed about than in any form of Hinseleana 
or Pyrenaica. At least the distribution precisely tallies with that of 
A. alpina (Sternb.), which, if not by any means extensive, is certainly 
peculiar. For the form covered by these names is entirely confined 
to the Val Ampola, the neighbourhood of Storo, and the Cima Tombea 
above it. Here, and nowhere else, it may freely be found, growing 
graceful and charming in the limestone rocks and stony places, a pret- 
tier thing than Hinseleana, full of a grace and beauty of its own, 
though not having the noble sapphirine splendour of the nevertheless 
niore dainty-habited Pyrenaica, Kitaibelii, and Bertoloni. All these 
Columbines, however, are of the easiest culture, and should be tried 
also in the moraine, or in some such stony light and open limy 
ground, in situations sunny (in the North) but not too torrid. | 
A. Reuteri, hovering on the edge of cultivation, will prove a most 
beautiful addition to our Columbines. It is a very rare species, con- 
fined to the Western and Maritime Alps, where it sometimes seems to 
take the place of A. alpina at rather lower elevations ; as round the 
Miniera de Tenda, some hundreds of feet below the woods which 
Alpina is occupying in myriad strength. Of A. alpina, A. Reuter is a 
most dainty diminished and paler replica; but the flowers, though 
smaller than those of A. alpina, are magnificent and numerous on thé 
graceful foot-high stems, and of a quite peculiar and entrancing soft 
clear refulgence, like a jewel which, at twilight, as the blossoms dance 
in the gathering dusk against the obscurity of the rough grass, seems 
to glow and burn with a cold electric flame of blue. It is a lovely 
thing, indeed, growing in poor soil, in the most desperately hard and 
stony places—often hovering in and out of light Pinus montana 
scrub, where its vivid cerulean siars shine cool in company with the 
flaming scarlet Turks’-caps of Liliwm pomponium, waxed and glossy. 
In England, therefore, sunnier, stonier sites might be generally pre- 
scribed for this species than for such as A. alpina and A. pyrenaica. 
A. saximontana is stilla hope and nothing more. High, high in the 
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