JOURNAL 
OF 
The New York Botanical Garden 
Vor. XII August, 1912. No. 1&2. 
WILD PLANTS NEEDING PROTECTION.! 
4. ‘‘Witp CoLUMBINE”’ (A quilegia canadensis L.). 
(With Prate XCVIII.) 
Nodding in the cool winds of spring-time, and so lightly poised 
on its slender stems, that it is almost impossible to take its 
photograph, the wild columbine adorns the rocks and ledges in 
May with its gay, red and yellow blossoms and occasionally is 
found in fields at middle elevations where it blooms until July. 
The flowers are pendent, about I-2 inches long, bright red, the 
five short red sepals overlapping five tubular spurs which ter- 
minate below in thickened honey-sacs and broaden out above 
into five short yellow petals attached around a long-exserted, 
cluster of slender yellow stamens, about fifty in number. These 
are attached in five rows to a disc at the base of the ovaries, 
which are five in number and hairy with five long slender styles; 
they develop into five follicles with long spreading points. Each 
follicle contains about fifteen shining black seeds attached along 
the ventral suture. 
The basal leaves are pale green beneath, three-parted and each 
leaflet again divided into three, toothed lobes; smaller, short- 
stalked, simpler leaves also grow on the flower stalks and diminish 
into bracts above. The stems vary in height from one to two 
feet and are smooth or slightly hairy above. The root is fibrous 
and easily uprooted and for this reason the plant largely depends 
on its seeds for reproduction and is likely to be quickly exter- 
1 Illustrated by the aid of the Stokes Fund for the Preservation of Native Plants, 
123 
