From Blue to Purple 



far more interested to find that, usually, beneath each leaf there 

 was hiding a little pike. The largest was not two inches in 

 length. When disturbed, they swam a few inches, and seemed 

 wholly ' at sea ' if there was not another leaf near by to afford 

 them shelter." 



European, or Common Garden, Columbine 



(Aquilegia vulgaris) Crowfoot family 



Flowers Showy, blue, purple, or white, ij^ to 2 in. broad, or 

 about as broad as long ; spurs stout and strongly incurved. 

 General characteristics of plant resembling wild columbine. 



Preferred Habitat Escaped from gardens to woods and fields in 

 Eastern and Middle States. Native of Europe. 



Flowering Season May July. 



A heavier, less graceful flower than either the wild red and 

 yellow columbine or the exquisite, long-spurred, blue and white 

 species {A. ccerulea) of the Rocky Mountain region; nevertheless 

 this European immigrant, now making itself at home here, is a 

 charming addition to our flora. How are insects to reach the 

 well of nectar secreted in the tip of its incurved, hooked spur ? 

 Certain of the long-lipped bees, large bumble-bees, whose tongues 

 have developed as rapidly as the flower, are able to drain it. 

 Humming-birds, partial to red flowers, fertilize the wild colum- 

 bine, but let this one alone. Miiller watched a female bumblebee 

 making several vain attempts to sip this blue one. Soon the bril- 

 liant idea of biting a hole through each spur flashed through her 

 little brain, and the first experiment proving delightfully success- 

 ful, she proceeded to bite holes through other flowers without first 

 trying to suck them. Apparently she satisfied her feminine con- 

 science with the reflection that the flower which made dining so 

 difficult for its benefactors deserved no better treatment. 



Field, or Branched, Larkspur; Knight's-spur; 

 Lark-heel 



(Delphinium Consolida) Crowfoot family 



Flowers Blue to pinkish and whitish, i to i YZ in. long, hung on 

 slender stems, and scattered along spreading branches; 5 

 petal-like sepals, the rear one prolonged into long, slender, 

 curving spur; 2 petals, united. Stem : i to 2^ ft. high. 

 Leaves : Divided into very finely cut linear segments. 



15 



