64 BRITISH FLOWERING PLANTS chap. 



with cut leaves, the Larkspur and Fennel (Fceniculum), 

 for example, rise up in cylindrical columns, and the lower 

 leaves are lit through the interstices of the upper ones. 

 D. elatum is an Eastern Mediterranean species. 



Aquilegia 



Perennial herbs, with flowers in racemes. The 5 

 sepals are petaloid. The 5 petals each end in a long 

 horn-shaped spur. The 5 carpels form each a several- 

 seeded follicle. 



A. vulgaris (Columbine) is characterised by its large, 

 drooping, blue or pale purple flowers and much-divided 

 leaves. Honey is secreted at the ends of the spurs 

 of the petals, which reach a length of 15-22 mm., and 

 are just wide enough at the entrance to receive the head 

 of a humble bee. Only those, however, with the longest 

 proboscis {Bomhus hortorum and B. agrorum) can reach 

 the honey. Other species, as Sprengel observed long ago, 

 have hit upon the device, adopted also in the cases of many 

 other tubular flowers, of biting a hole through the spur 

 and thus robbing the flower of its honey. This is said 

 to be most frequently done by B. terrestris, but other 

 species, including the hive bee, avail themselves of the 

 access thus afi"orded. H. Miiller observed a humble bee 

 (B. terrestris) come to one of these flowers and lick the 

 base of the sepals. Finding no honey there, she tried 

 the petal, but her proboscis was too short, and after 

 thrusting her head in as far as it would go, and vainly 

 trying to reach the honey, she gave it up, went round 

 to the end of the spur, bit a hole through, and so was 

 able to suck the honey. After this she visited several 

 other flowers, and, without losing time by trying other 

 means of access, at once bit holes in the spurs. He 

 thinks that each humble bee begins by satisfying 

 herself that she cannot obtain the honey without biting 

 a hole, or using one already made. I have found almost 

 all the Columbines in my garden thus bitten through. 

 The follicles are upright, and open at the top. "When 

 agitated by the wind they scatter the seeds in all 



