Summer JFlotoers. 141 



native tall-growing lilies, Canadense, Canadense 

 rubrum, and superbum. 



A desirable border-plant is the columbine, or 

 Aquilegia, in its many forms. Few perennials 

 grow as easily from seed. They so very readily 

 take crosses, however, that, where many are 

 grown together, they can not be reproduced in 

 the same character from their own seed. A. 

 chrysantha, a Rocky Mountain species, with 

 long-spurred, canary-colored flowers, and A. cce- 

 rulea, with deep-blue sepals and white petals, 

 from the same region, are the finest of the larger 

 North American columbines. A. longissima is 

 a species of western Texas, described as " flow- 

 ers opening upward, spreading widely ; of a pale 

 yellow, or sometimes nearly white, or tinged 

 with red." Its remarkable characteristic is its 

 immense spurs, four inches and upward in 

 length. It has been raised from seed in the 

 Cambridge Botanic Garden, but has proved ten- 

 der in that latitude. A contributor of "Gar- 

 den and Forest," where it was recently figured. 

 makes this interesting comment on its wonder- 

 ful spur-formation : " In view of the recognized 

 adaptation of flowers and insects to each other 

 for mutual benefit, it is a question what long- 

 tongued moths have developed side by side with 

 this long-spurred flower, and how far the plant 



