THE COLUMBINE. 



Aquilegia vulgaris 



NCE more we have to discourse 

 upon an "old-fashioned" garden 

 flower that everybody knows 

 and loves, and yet very few 

 make it the subject of any special 

 care in cultivation. It is as- 

 tonishing how well it can take 

 care of itself, as indeed do all 

 the aquilegias, for they scatter 

 their seeds freely and appear in 

 all sorts of places, and it requires 

 a rough hand and hard heart 

 to root them out and call them 

 " weeds. " According to the de- 

 rivation of the word from the 

 Latin columbina, a columbine 

 should bear a likeness in some 

 way or other to a dove or pigeon. 

 If there be any resemblance, however, it is of a round- 

 about sort. The nectaries are rather peculiar, and may 

 be likened to the heads of pigeons. The Latin name 

 aqnilcffia means " like an eagle," and so in both languages 

 the flower suggests the existence of a bird. 



The common columbine is a British plant, by no 



