RANUNCULACEyE 269 



A. vulgaris*. This is the typical form both in lowlands 

 and mountains. The flower is smaller than in alpina; the 

 stem grows to two feet in height or even more, is much 

 branched and bears at times large panicles of dark blue 

 flowers with a centre of golden-yellow stamens. In the 

 variety atrata the flowers are dark brown. 



Jl. vulgaris takes many forms, and under cultivation hy- 

 bridises readily with the columbines of the Old World, 

 but never with the long-spurred species from North 

 America. By crossing one obtains a multitude of different 

 shapes and tints and types, which can be used with admir- 

 able results in the garden of an artist. At Floraire, where 

 endeavour is made to harmonise the forms and the colours 

 and to give a proper value to their loveliness by placing 

 them in an appropriate and effective setting, we have seen 

 lovers of the beautiful faint with delight at the sudden 

 sight of the simple pictures which fair nature creates 

 in our alpine garden. And, since columbines reproduce 

 themselves spontaneously without the gardener's aid, 

 wonderful combinations of colour and lovely effects are 

 soon obtained in copses and shady corners, which strike 

 pale with jealousy the coarse masses of bedded-out reds 

 or yellows or pinks with which philistine gardeners of 

 to-day have served us to satiety. 



The columbine is important among the flowers of my- 

 thology. It was once the emblem of unhappy love and is 

 so mentioned by Shakespeare in Hamlet. In "The Masque 

 of Flowers" (Flora's Feast), by the celebrated designer 

 Walter Crane, the graceful leaves form a chariot in which 

 Venus rides, garlanded with the blossoms and drawn by 

 two trains of five doves each: "Fair Columbines that 

 drew the car of Venus from her distant star". 



(Columbine is derived from columba, a dove. Cp. 

 Bacon's expression "to join serpentine wisdom to colum- 

 bine innocency". EJ.). 



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