From Blue to Purple 



far more interested to find that, usually, beneath each leaf there 

 was hiding a little pike. The largest was not two inches in 

 length. When disturbed, they swam a few inches, and seemed 

 wholly ' at sea ' if there was not another leaf near by to afford 

 them shelter." 



European, or Common Garden, Columbine 



{Aqtiilegia vulgaris) Crowfoot family 



Flowers — Showy, blue, purple, or white, i ^4 to 2 in. broad, or 

 about as broad as long ; spurs stout and strongly incurved. 

 General characteristics of plant resembling wild columbine. 



Preferred Habitat — Escaped from gardens to woods and fields in 

 Eastern and Middle States. Native of Europe. 



Flowering Season — May — ^July. 



A heavier, less graceful flower than either the wild red and 

 yellow columbine or the exquisite, long-spurred, blue and white 

 species {A. cav/z/rrf) of the Rocky Mountain region; nevertheless 

 this European immigrant, now making itself at home here, is a 

 charming addition to our flora. How are insects to reach the 

 well of nectar secreted in the tip of its incurved, hooked spur ? 

 Certain of the long-lipped bees, large bumble-bees, whose tongues 

 have developed as rapidly as the flower, are able to drain it. 

 Humming-birds, partial to red flowers, fertilize the wild colum- 

 bine, but let this one alone. Miiller watched a female bumblebee 

 making several vain attempts to sip this blue one. Soon the bril- 

 liant idea of biting a hole through each spur flashed through her 

 little brain, and the first experiment proving delightfully success- 

 ful, she proceeded to bite holes through other flowers without first 

 trying to suck them. Apparently she satisfied her feminine con- 

 science with the reflection that the flower which made dining so 

 difficult for its benefactors deserved no better treatment. 



Field, or Branched, Larkspur; Knight's-spur; 



Lark-heel 



(Delphinium Consolida) Crowfoot family 



Flo7tiers — Blue to pinkish and whitish, i to i ^^4 in. long, hung on 

 slender stems, and scattered along spreading branches; 5 

 petal-like sepals, the rear one prolonged into long, slender, 

 curving spur; 2 petals, united. Stem : i to 2li ft. high. 

 Leaves : Divided into very finely cut linear segments. 



IS 



