THE COLUMBINE. 
Agquilegia vulgaris 
NCE more we have to discourse 
upon an “old-fashioned” 
garden 
flower that everybody knows 
and loves, and yet very few 
make it the subject of any special 
care in cultivation. It is as- 
tonishing how well it can take 
care of itself, as indeed do all 
the aquilegias, for they seatter 
their seeds freely and appear in 
all sorts of places, and it requires 
a rough hand and hard heart 
to root them out and eall them 
“weeds.” According to the de- 
rivation of the word from the 
Ss 
Latin columbina, a columbine 
should bear a likeness in some 
way or other to a dove or pigeon. 
If there be any resemblance, however, it is of a round- 
about sort. The nectaries are rather peculiar, and may 
be likened to the heads of pigeons. The Latin name 
aguilegia means “ like an eagle,” and so in both languages 
the flower suggests the existence of a bird. 
The common columbine is a British plant, by no 
