THE COLUMBINE 97 



This would possibly be on account of the deep 

 purple of the flowers, that colour throughout the 

 Middle Ages being associated with the idea of 

 mourning. On the other hand, Drayton crowns 

 his lady fair, as a symbol of rejoicing, with " a 

 goodly chaplet of azured columbine " ; while 

 Spenser cries, " Bring hither the pink and purple 

 columbine." This flower is rather a favourite with 

 Spenser. In his " Garden of Beauty," after dwell- 

 ing on the ruddy cheeks and wondrous eyes of the 

 fair one, he goes on to compare, though one scarcely 

 sees why, " Her neck, like to a bunch of collum- 

 bines." 



The columbine derives its name from the Latin 

 word columba, a pigeon, as the flowers strongly 

 resemble a cluster of birds, while its older name 

 of culverwort is, in like manner, from the Anglo- 

 Saxon culfre, a pigeon. In its botanical name this 

 ornithological suggestion still obtains, but here it is 

 Aquilegid) from the Latin word aquila, an eagle. 

 It may at first seem strange that the familiar name 

 of a common English plant should be derived from 

 a Greek or Latin source, but it must be borne in 

 mind that the ecclesiastics in mediaeval times were 

 not only the scholars of the period, keeping alive 

 the knowledge of the classic tongues, but were also 

 the " leeches " ministering through their knowledge 



red and yellow ; in the third blue and white, while in the last 

 they are green and red. There are many other forms. 



7 



