THE COLUMBINE. 



often remains single. We brought a few seeds with us 

 from Godalming, sowed them on a bank among common 

 laurels, the Mahonia and other shrubs, and the plant has 

 maintained its original position, uncared for, and has bloomed 

 regularly every succeeding year for the last seventeen 

 summers. It was this year quite white. There is only one 

 solitary stem, with its seed-veSsels now ripening, but it puts 

 us in mind of its parent-plant, and of the beautiful spot in 

 which that parent flourished. The plant seems to have 

 been called Columbine from the resemblance of the flowers 

 to doves, and Aquilegia on account of the inverted spurs 

 being thought to resemble the talons of a bird of prey. The 

 flower, as a whole, reminds some of the cap and bells worn 

 by Columbine in a pantomime, and has been considered a 

 meet emblem of Folly. 



The Columbine was known to our early poets. Chaucer 

 says — 



" Come forth now with thin eyen Columbine;" 



and Spenser speaks of two different coloured flowers, 



" Bring hither the pincke and purple CuUambine ;" 



as a wild flower it has been mentioned as of three different 

 tints, — 



"In pink or purple hues arrayed, ofttimes indeed in white, 

 We see, within the woodland glade, the Columbine delight ; 

 Some three feet high, with stem erect, the plant unaided grows, 

 And at the summit, now deflect, the strange-formed flower blows." — 



Field Flowers. 



S6 



