248 CONTRIBUTIONS FEOM THE NATIONAL HEEBAEIUM. 



3. AQUILEGIA L. Columbine. 



Perennial herbs with, twice or thrice ternately compound leaves with lobed leaflets; 

 flowers large and showy; sepals 5, regular, colored like the petals; petals 5, similar, 

 each with a short spreading lip produced backward into a long hollow spur; pistils 5, 

 with slender styles; pods erect, many-seeded, with long filiform tips. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES. 



Flowers nodding, red, with more or less yellow; spurs 2 cm. long 

 or less. 

 Sepals greenish; spurs slender, 2 to 3 times as long as the sepals. . 1. A. elegantula. 

 Sepals red; spurs thick, only slightly if at all longer than the 



sepals, never twice as long 2. A.formosa. 



Flowers erect, yellow or blue; spurs 3 to 7 cm. long. 



Flowers yellow; spurs 5 to 7 cm. long 3. A. chrysantha. 



Flowers blue or bluish; spurs 3 to 4 cm. long 4. A. caerulea. 



1. Aquilegia eleg£i.ntula Greene, Pittonia 4: 14. 1899. Red columbine. 

 Type locality: " Southern Colorado, in Slide Rock Caiion, and on the flanks of 



Mt. Hesperus in spruce woods." 



Range: Colorado and New Mexico. 



New Mexico: Santa Fe and Las Vegas mountains; Sandia Mountains; White and 

 Sacramento mountains. Transition and Canadian zones. 



Tills and the following resemble the eastern Aquilegia canadensis. They occur 

 only in the 'higher mountains, in damp woods, Usually on the faces of cliffs. Both 

 species are very handsome and might well be cultivated in gardens in the higher 

 parts of the States. 



2. Aquilegia forinosa Fisch.; DC. Prodr. 1: 50. 1824. Red columbine. 

 Type locality: Kamchatka. 



Range: Alaska to California, Utah, and New Mexico; also in Siberia. 

 New Mexico: Mountains west of Grant; Sandia Mountains; Kingston; Bear 

 Mountain; Luna. Damp woods, in the Transition Zone. 



3. Aquilegia chiysantha A. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad. 8: 621. 1873. 



Yellow columbine. 



Aquilegia leptocera Jlava A. Gray, PI. Wright. 2: 9. 1853. 



Type locality: Organ Moimtains, New Mexico. Type collected by Wright (no. 

 1306). 



Range; New Mexico and Arizona. 



New Mexico: Sandia Mountains; Mogollon Mountains; Organ Mountains; Fresnal, 

 Shaded canyons, in the Transition Zone. 



Although the plant is properly of the Transition Zone, it extends much farther 

 down in moist, shaded places in the canyons. With its lai^e, golden yellow flowers 

 it is one of the most beautiful of our Southwestern plants. In the Organ Mountains 

 it is abundant in several places, sometimes growing on the shaded faces of cliffs and 

 sometimes about the edges of small pools. 



4. Aquilegia caerulea James in Long, Exped. 2: 15. 1825. 



Rocky Mountain columbine. 



Type locality: On the divide between the Platte and the Arkansas, Colorado. 



Range: Montana to Utah and New Mexico. 



Xew Mexico: Tunitcha Mountains; Chama; Santa Fe and Las Vegas mountains; 

 Sandia Mountains. Woods and open meadows. Transition to Hudsonian Zone. 



Tills is the State flower of Colorado and no other State has one so beautiful. Few 

 indeed are the flowers of the Rockies that can compare with this in beauty. The 



