16 EANONCDLACE^. [Aquilegla ■ 



In moist, often elevated woods and thickets, along hedges, in open pastures and 

 on heathy, bushy commons and furze-braltes in several parts of the island ; not 

 frequent, through truly wild with us. Fl. May — July. U- 



E. il/erZ.— Sparingly though certainly wild in the high wood in Appuldurcombe 

 l)ark. In Quarr copse, but very rarely. Abundant a year or two since amongst 

 furze near Ninham farm, Byde, and found by me several years previously in a 

 wood between Ninham and Quarr, but in the former station the plant had disap- 

 peared in 1840, being apparently overpowered hy the furze itself In an old 

 stone-pit at Binstead, Rev. W. Darwin Fox !.'.' Hedgehank of a field between 

 Wootton bridge and Wootton common, perhaps escaped from the Rev. W. 

 White's garden. On Lake common with flowers of a bright purplish red, a good 

 many plants. 



W. Med.—Yerj sparingly but truly wild in the elevated thicket along the crest 

 of the cbalk-pit on Alvin^ton manor, by Carishrooke. A plant or two observed 

 near North Court, Shorwell, probably a stray from cultivation. Nearly at the 

 summit of High Wood, Swainston, in one place in great abundance, covering a 

 space of ground of many yards in radius and truly wild. (The spot is about 60 

 yards from a large spreading oak, standing alone in the centre of a wide glade or 

 road cut in the wood). Plentiful in a field near Colwell barracks, and still abun- 

 dant at the upper end of Colwell heath. Plentiful in a wood c;illed the Tolt 

 copse, near Gatcombe. In Northwood park, Afiss G. Kildcrbee. Parkhurst forest 

 on the left hand within the gate near Mark's Corner, Miss G. Kildcrbee ! 



/3. Ape's down, plentifully, Mrs. Woodrow, according to Mrs. Penfold, who has 

 received specimens from thence. 



Ste7n thick and fleshy, branching into several stout, nearly simple fibres, divided 

 at the crown into 2 or more (sometimes numerous) heads wrapped by the sheath- 

 ing bases of the leafstalks of a former season. Stem one or more (?), slender, 

 erect, from 2 to 3 or even 4 feet high, hollow, wavy, subterete and simple below, 

 obscurely or distinctly angular above, where it divides into a few distant, upright 

 branches ; clothed all over with fine, soft, spreading pubescence, sometimes it is 

 said glabrous. Radical leaves fasciculate, biternate, their common and partial 

 stalks downy like the stem, terete, a little flattened and grooved above, the former 

 a span or more in length, shortly sheathing at the base, with broadly scariose 

 entire margins; partial footstalks much shorter, about 2 — 4 inches in length. 

 Leaflets about I or 2 inches lung, slightly glaucous, glabrous above, whitish and 

 finely downy beneath, cuneato-rotundate, cuneato-ovate or fan-shaped, entire at 

 the base, more or less deeply or even subpalmately incised ; the terminal leaflet 

 shortly stalked, Irifidly cut or lohed at the summit, the lobes again bifidly or tri- 

 fidly incised, crenate, with usually rounded obtuse and shallow, sometimes deeper, 

 more acute and almost toothed segments. Lateral leaflets sessile, subsessile, or 

 also stalked, oblique at base and less regularly 3-lobed, otherwise like the termi- 

 nal. Occasionally all the leaflets are sessile, confluent or even entire (Bertoloni). 

 Stem-leaves few, distant, the lowermost like those at the root but on shorter stalks, 

 those higher up almost sessile on their broad clasping sheaths, with narrower and 

 less divided leaflets, the highest of all or those at the origin of the branches sim- 

 ply ternate and reduced to three elliptical, oblong, slightly cut and cleft or quite 

 entire sessile leaflets. Flowers solitary, terminal, large (2 inches across), nodding, 

 in the truly wild state mostly of a fine purplish or violet blue, sometimes, as in 

 gardens, inclined to a reddish or pink colour, rather fugacious. Sepals concolo- 

 rous with the petals, elliptical-oblong or ovate-oblong, with greenish thickened 

 tips and abrupt wrinkled claws, slightly downy externally, pointed or acuminate, 

 a little spreading only. Petals erect, normally 5 but sometimes double that num- 

 ber in the wild plant, uniformly coloured like the sepals, cornet-shaped, the limb 

 very round and obtuse, with the margins entire, more or less revolute or reflexed, 

 tapering into a shortish more or less strongly hooked spur, having its apex hol- 

 low, globose, and gland-like. Stamens numerous, the outermost shorter and 

 spreading or recurved at their tips, the inner and longer erect, about as long as 

 the petals ; filaments ciliated and rugose at bottom, and mixed with lanceolate, 

 pellucid, paleaceous scales, which are no doubt abortive or imperfect stamens ; 



