66 STUDIES IN GARDENING 



useful to it as a protection against drought than a 

 nourishment, and should be placed well below the 

 roots, or used as a top-dressing in hot weather, if ap- 

 plied at all. At any rate, a plant so beautiful is worth 

 some trouble. Aquilegia Stuartii is a hybrid between 

 A. glandulosa and A. vulgaris Wittmanniana. It is, 

 perhaps, the most beautiful of all columbines, being 

 in appearance simply a finer variety of A. glandulosa. 

 It is also capricious. It appears to do better in Scot- 

 land than in England; and the late Dr. Stuart, who 

 raised it, seems to have had little difficulty with it. 

 It should be cultivated in the same way as A. glan- 

 dulosa, but should be increased by division, as seed- 

 lings seldom come true; and division should be done 

 very carefully with a sharp knife after the plants have 

 flowered. A. Stuartii is a plant which appeared to be 

 almost extinct a few years ago; but in the last year or 

 so some very fine forms of it have been raised, forms 

 surpassing in beauty any other columbines; and it 

 would be well if further experiments were made in 

 hybridizing A. glandulosa with other varieties of A. 

 vulgaris. In the case of A. Stuartii, we believe, the 

 pollen of A. glandulosa was used. There seems to 

 be no reason why plants should not in time be pro- 

 duced with the delicate beauty of A. glandulosa and 

 the vigour of A. vulgaris, and also with some variety 

 of colour. Aquilegia alpina is a plant which is very 

 seldom seen true in English gardens, and which ap- 

 pears to lose a great deal of its beauty in captivity. 

 The true species has large blue flowers and grows less 



