214 Pink to Red Flowers 



bracts; leaflets broadly cuneate, three-cleft. Flowers: red, pendulous in 

 anthesis ; sepals spreading or reflexed, abruptly narrowed to a short 

 claw; spurs same length as sepals. 



A large gaudy flower of which it has been said : 



" The graceful columbine, all blushing red, 

 Bends to the earth her crown 

 Of honey-laden bells." 



The Western Columbine does not seek the light dry soil 

 amongst the rocks, as do its sisters, the Yellow and the Blue 

 Columbines, but prefers a moist habitat, where its brilliant 

 pendulous blossoms make the valleys gay. 



It has bright red and gold petals, growing alternately 

 with its five red sepals. These petals, shaped like inverted 

 cornucopias, are usually edged as well as lined with yellow, 

 their upper ends being narrowed to terminal tubular spurs. 

 Linnaeus gave this plant its generic name, derived from the 

 Latin aquila, owing to the fancied resemblance of its spurs 

 to the claws of an eagle; while Columbine is taken from 

 columba, " a dove," and refers to the resemblance of its 

 nectaries to a circle of doves in a ring around a dish, which 

 was a favourite device amongst sculptors and painters in 

 ancient times. The numerous stamens and long slender 

 styles of the pistils protrude like pretty golden tassels from 

 each flower. The foliage of this tall plant, which usually 

 grows from two to three feet high, is very abundant and 

 fern-like ; dark green on the top, and pale and whitish under- 

 neath. The larger leaves grow on long foot-stalks and are 

 divided into three leaflets, which in their turn are three-to- 

 five lobed and have unequally toothed edges. 



There are not very many really red mountain wild flow- 

 ers, and therefore the traveller takes an especial delight in 

 finding the Western Columbine, since, like Eugene Field, he 



