NIGELLA 



BUTTEBGUP OBDJEB 



AQUILBGIA 155 



can be more readily attended to when 

 large enough to handle easily. The roots 

 also may be divided about the end of Sep- 

 tember, or in spring just as growth is 

 beginning. This species makes a graceful 

 edging plant. 



NIGELLA (Devil-in-the-Btjsh ; 

 LovB-iN-A-MiST ; Fennel-Flo wee). — A 

 genus of about 10 species of curious 

 erect annuals, with alternate leaves out 

 into very narrow more or less finely 

 cut pinnate segments. Flowers white, 

 blue or yellow. Sepals 5, regular, petal- 

 like, deciduous. Petals 5, clawed, with 

 a small bifid blade. Carpels 3-10, more 

 or less connate, and opening at the top 

 when ripe to shed the numerous seeds. 



CulUi/re a/nd Propagation. — Nigellas, 

 or Fennel Flowers, wiU grow in any 

 ordinary garden soil, and may be easily 

 raised from seeds sown in the open border 

 every spring. "When the seedhngs are 

 large enough to handle easily they should 

 be thinned out to about 6 in. apart. N. 

 damaseena and N. Jiispa/mca are the kinds 

 most generally "grown, but the other species 

 as described below may also be tried. 



They are all more or less ornamental 

 and interesting plants in the rockery or 

 flower border, and may be out freely for 

 bouquets, and for room decoration. 



N. damaseena. — A native of S. Europe 

 and Asia Minor, 1-2 ft. high, with finely 

 cut leaves and large white or blue flowers 

 appearing in summer and surrounded by 

 a mossy involucre. Flore pleno is a 

 double-flowered variety, and alba has 

 white flowers. 



Culture do. as above. 

 N. hispanica. — A species 1-2 ft. high 

 from Spain and the south of France. 

 Flowers in July and August, large, deep 

 blue, and without any involucre. There 

 is a white- and also a purple-flowered 

 variety of this species. 

 Culture So. as above. 

 N. Nigellastrum [Q-aridella Nigell- 

 astrum). — This is the 'Star Nigella' of 

 S. Europe. It has very finely cut leaves, 

 and produces its brown and green flowers 

 about July. 



Culture Ac. as above. 

 N. orientalis. — A curious species from 

 Asia Minor. It is about 18 in. high, with 

 pale blue-green foliage cut into long and 

 narrow segments. The yellow flowers 

 spotted with red appear in summer. 

 Culture dc. as above. 



N. sativa. — This plant is supposed by 

 some to be the Fitches mentioned in 

 Isaiah. It is about 18 in. high and a 

 native of S. Europe, N. Africa, and Asia 

 Minor. The rather hairy erect stems are 

 clothed with leaves cut into short linear 

 diverging segments. The bluish flowers, 

 without an involucre, appear in July, 



Culture do. as above. 



AQUILEGIA (Columbine).— A genus 

 of erect perennial herbs, with ternately 

 decompound leaves, the segments of which 

 are usually blunt. The flowers are as a 

 rule very beautiful, vary a good deal in 

 colour, being blue, white, yellow, purple, 

 and scarlet, with intermediate shades, and 

 are borne either singly or in panicles. 

 Sepals 5, regular, petal-Uke, deciduous. 

 Petals 5, concave, produced downwards 

 between the sepals into a tubular horn-like 

 spur, curved at the tips. Stamens numer- 

 ous, the inner row sometimes reduced to 

 scale-like staminodes. Carpels 5, separate, 

 changing into opening follicles when ripe. 



Culture and Propagation. — The 

 Columbines are well-known and beautiful 

 garden plants ; most of them can be 

 easily grown in ordinary soil, especially 

 if it consists chiefly of loam with 

 plenty of vegetable matter in it. 

 Some of the more choice alpine kinds, 

 however, require a little care in regard to 

 soil and situation. They thrive best in 

 well-drained, but withal moist, sandy soil, 

 in half shady places with a northern aspect, 

 and are suitable plants for the rockery. 

 A good mulching of manure in autumn 

 or early winter will be highly beneficial 

 to the plants, and keep them in a vigorous 

 condition for several years, and enable 

 them to bring forth immense numbers 

 of blossoms during the early summer 

 months. 



Columbines are easily increased either 

 from seeds sown in spring in the open 

 border ; in the autumn in boxes or pans, 

 placed in a cold frame ; or by dividing the 

 rootstock in autumn. As seeds are pro- 

 duced in great abundance as a rale, and 

 cross-fertilisation is easily effected, the 

 only sure way to secure an increase of a 

 particular variety is by dividing the root- 

 stock. Every shoot, if carefully detached 

 and planted, wiU grow and make a strong 

 plant the following season. On the other 

 hand, a charming variety in form and 

 colour may be obtained by planting seed- 

 lings. "Where A. chrysa/ntha, A. sibirica, 

 and A. vulgaris are grown with other 



