60 SUB-ALPINE PLANTS 



ERANTHIS Salisb. 



A genus of only 5 species inhabiting the mountains of Europe 

 and Asia. Flowers regular. Sepals petaloid, deciduous. Petals 

 small, 2-lipped. 



Eranthis hiemalis Salisb. Winter Aconite. 



Yellow petals and sepals. Flowers solitary and sessile in an in- 

 volucre of green ' leaves.' Leaves glabrous, shining, appearing 

 after the flowers, orbicular, but deeply cut into segments. Sepals 

 petaloid, 5-8. Follicles 5-8, free, divergent, with a beak half their 

 length. 



Damp, wooded places, sometimes extending up to 5000 feet in 

 the Alps, though very local. February and March. Frequently 

 naturalised in shrubberies, etc., in Switzerland and Normandy, and 

 well known in English gardens. Even in 1633 Gerard wrote, "We 

 have great quantities of it in our London gardens." 



Distribution. Vosges, Jura, Alps of Dauphiny and Provence ; 

 Central Europe as far as Servia. In Switzerland it is rare, and only 

 naturalised in orchards, vineyards, etc. 



AQUILEGIA L. Columbine. 



Perennial herbs with the leaves mostly radical, ternately divided, 

 with distinct stalked segments or leaflets. Sepals 5, coloured. 

 Petals 5, each prolonged below into a horn-shaped spur. Stamens 

 numerous. Carpels 5, each with several seeds. 



A small genus, spread over the temperate regions of the northern 

 hemisphere, especially in hilly districts. 



Aquilegia alpina L. Alpine Columbine. 



Stem 1-2 feet high, 1-3 flowered. Leaves doubly ternate ; 

 leaflets deeply incised and 3-cleft, crenate. Flowers very large, the 

 petaloid sepals broadly ovate, deep blue, the spur of the nectary 

 somewhat curved. Petals 5, broad, paler blue, rather longer than 

 the stamens. Follicles 5, densely hairy. 



One of the most handsome plants of the Alps. Mr. Reginald 

 Farrer says of it in My Rock Garden, page 46 : " The flowers, 

 dancing high on airy stems, are of enormous size, most exquisitely, 

 daintily balanced, and of a soft, melting blue quite impossible to 

 describe a colour deep yet gentle, brilliant yet modest, perfectly 

 clear and yet not flaunting." The same writer, in speaking of the 

 cultivation of Columbines, tells us : " The essential is to give them 

 perfect, quick drainage, and then a soil both rich and light. They 

 dislike, too, being battered by winds and weather when they are 

 coming up. The best that we can do is to remember how they 

 lodge and dodge behind bushes on their native hills when they can, 

 and give them some such similar protection in the garden." 



