174 THE CROWFOOT FAMILY. 



C. cordifblia, heart-leaved snakeroot which occurs from Tennessee to 

 southwestern Virginia, is a form very similar to the black snakeroot. It 

 has, however, considerably broader and more deeply cordate leaflets. 



WILD COLUriBINE. 



Aquilegia Canadensis. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Crowfoot. Red and yellozu Scentless. Froin the Gulf Region north- April-fuly. 

 or ivhite. ward and ^vestward. 



Flowers: one to two inches long; terminal; solitary and nodding from thread- 

 like pedicels. Calyx: with five petal-like deciduous sepals. Corolla : with five 

 tubular petals projected backward between the sepals into long, nearly straight 

 spurs. Stamens: numerous; exserted, the innermost reduced to staminodia. 

 Pistils: five with slender, exserted styles. Leaves: the lower and basal ones, 

 petioled, and twice or thrice-divided into lobed and toothed leaflets; (the upper 

 ones lobed or divided and nearly sessile) obovate ; lobed and toothed, or entire; 

 paler below than above. Stem ; one to two feet high; branched; leafy; glabrous 

 or slightly pubescent. 



*' And from the rock-cleft rude 

 Up sprhigs, with nodding bells, the columbine, — 

 And round her ever, in the solitude, 

 The wild bee's winglets shine." 



On many high places in the southern mountains, where the cliffs looked 

 ablaze in the sunshine, we saw that the columbine was in bloom. There 

 nodding from amid innumerable sprays of fine foliage, the blossoms, en 

 masse, produced a startling effect. When looking closely at an individual 

 it was not difficult to trace the much talked-of resemblances of its various 

 parts to an eagle and a dove ; it thus typifying power and peace. The long 

 spur of this species especially is regarded as representing the horn of plenty ; 

 a single nectary, a liberty cap, while a five rayed star is suggested by the 

 flower's full face. The range of the wild columbine also is very extended, 

 so there has been good cause that the plant should long have been in the 

 group talked of for the national flower. In ancient folk-lore the columbine 

 was looked upon as the favourite flower of the lion. 



A. coccinca, which resembles the wild columbine, has been found in Ken- 

 tucky, Tennessee and Virginia. It is distinguished by its larger flowers and 

 shorter, more abruptly contracted spurs. 



A. austrdlis, grows on limestone rocks near Marianna, Florida, and is 

 a slender columbine with pale, green leaves and narrow, elongated sepals. 

 In other respects it much resembles Aquilegia Canadensis. 



DWARF LARKSPUR. STAGGER=WEED. 



Delphinium tricorne. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Crowfoot. Blue or white. Scentless. Georgia to Pennsylvania April., May. 



a7id westward. 



Flowers : irregular; large ; loosely clustered in a terminal raceme, SefaU: five, 



