AQUII.EGIA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



AQUILEGIA. 



441 



in mild districts this is not needed. It 

 may be flowered in an inverted bell-glass 

 in a room. In Devonshire it is grown to 

 greater perfection than in the home 

 counties. Failures often result from put- 



gardens, and they must be raised from 

 seed as frequently as good seed can be 

 got. It is the alpine character of the 

 home of many of the Columbines which 



Aponogeton (Cape Pond-flower.) 



ting it in too shallow water. There is a 

 variety (roseus) with rosy tinted blossoms. 

 A. spathaceum is a poor form with flowers 

 tinged with rose. Naiada-cece. 



AQUILEGIA (Columbine). Alpine 

 rock and meadow perennials of the But- 

 tercup order, often beautiful and widely 

 distributed over the northern and moun- 

 tain regions of Europe, Asia, and 

 America. They are of great variety in 

 colour white, rose, buff, blue, and purple, 

 and also stripes and intermediate shades, 

 the American kinds having yellow, scarlet, 

 and most delicate shades of blue flowers. 

 The Columbines are frequently taller than 

 most of the plants strictly termed alpine, 

 but are nevertheless true alpine plants, and 

 among the most singularly beautiful of 

 the class. Climbing the sunny hills of the 

 sierras in California, one meets with a 

 large scarlet Columbine, that has almost 

 the vigour of a lily, and in the mountains 

 of Utah, and on many others in the 

 Rocky Mountain region, there is the Rocky 

 Mountain Columbine (A. ccerulea), with 

 its long and slender spurs and lovely 

 cool tints, and there is no family that 

 has a wider share in adorning the 

 mountains. Although our cottage gardens 

 are alive with Columbines in much beauty 

 of colour in early summer, there is some 

 difficulty in cultivating the rarer alpine 

 kinds. They require to be carefully planted 

 in sandy or gritty though moist ground, and 

 in well-drained ledges in the rock-garden, 

 in half-shady positions or northern ex- 

 posures. Most rare Columbines, how- 

 ever, fail to form enduring tufts in our 



A white Aquilegia. 



makes the culture of some of the lovely 

 kinds so uncertain, and which causes 

 them to thrive so well in the north of 

 Scotland while they fail in our ordinary 

 dry garden borders. No plants are more 



