COLUMBINES 67 



than a foot high, and there is a variety with white 

 and blue flowers more beautiful even than this type. 

 Aquilegia pyrenaica is the smallest of all columbines 

 and a beautiful plant for the rock garden. It grows 

 about half a foot high, and has soft blue flowers with 

 bright golden anthers. The foliage is almost as delicate 

 as that of a maidenhair fern. This, again, is a plant 

 which is seldom seen true in English gardens. Most 

 nurserymen sell for it a fine dwarf variety of A. vulgaris 

 flowering very early, whereas A. pyrenaica is a per- 

 fectly distinct plant and the latest flowering of all 

 columbines. It seems to be difficult to raise from 

 seed, unless the seed is sown when just ripe; but it 

 is not difficult to grow in a cool part of the rock gar- 

 den in light soil with a good deal of leaf -mould. It 

 does not always ripen seed in England. 



There are a good many other species of columbines; 

 but we have mentioned most of those which are most 

 distinct and beautiful. Columbines, but for a few 

 exceptions, are easily grown in most English gardens; 

 and the North American species, which do not last 

 many years, are probably not true perennials in their 

 own country. Indeed, all columbines are usually at 

 their best in the first or second year of flowering, 

 and should be frequently renewed from seed. Luckily 

 they are among the easiest of plants to raise from seed, 

 and many kinds will reproduce themselves freely, 

 especially in light soil. The seed may be sown as soon 

 as ripe, in which case many of the seedlings will flower 

 the next year; or else in May, when if well treated 



