IV 



RED 



WILD COLUMBINE. 



Aquilegia Canadensis. Crowfoot Family. 



Twelve to eighteen inches high. Stem. Branching. Leaves. Much- 

 divided, the leaflets lobed. Flowers. Large, bright red, yellow within, 

 nodding. Calyx. Of five red petal-like sepals. Corolla. Of five petals 

 in the form of large hollow spurs, which are red without and yellow within. 

 Stamens. Numerous. Pistils. Five, with slender styles. 



A woodland walk, 



A quest of river-grapes, a mocking thrush, 

 A wild-rose or rock-loving columbine, 

 Salve my worst wounds, 



declares Emerson ; and while perhaps few among us are able to 

 make so light-hearted and sweeping a claim for ourselves, yet 

 many will admit the soothing power of which the woods and 

 fields know the secret, and will own that the ordinary annoy- 

 ances of life may be held more or less in abeyance by one who 

 lives in close sympathy with nature. 



About the columbine there is a daring loveliness which 

 stamps it on the memories of even those who are not ordinarily 

 minute observers. It contrives to secure a foothold in the most 

 precipitous and uncertain of nooks, its jewel-like flowers gleam- 

 ing from their lofty perches with a graceful insouciance which 

 awakens our sportsmanlike instincts and fires us with the ambi- 

 tion to equal it in daring and make its loveliness our own. Per- 

 haps it is as well if our greediness be foiled and we get a tumble 

 for our pains, for no flower loses more with its surroundings 

 than the columbine. Indeed, these destructive tendencies which 

 are strong within most of us generally defeat themselves by de- 

 creasing our pleasure in a blossom the moment we have ruthlessly 

 and without purpose snatched it from its environment. If we 



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