54 PLANTS'. THEIR NATURAL GROWTH 



of the mountainous regions of Central Europe, and having no claim whatever to a place in our 

 indigenous flora. In its wild state the plant is rarely more than four inches high, though, when 

 cultivated, it often attains to a height of some eight or nine inches. The plant represented is an 

 especially fine specimen, the elongation of the stem being, however, the main point of difference 

 between wild and cultivated specimens, as those growing naturally, though smaller plants, have 

 their leaves and flowers as large as those shown in the example selected for our plate. The plant 

 blossoms during the latter part of May and throughout June. 



The generic name of the plant is based on its stellate character, aster being the Greek 

 word for a star. In figs. 297, 298, 299, we have endeavoured to embody the main features of 

 the plant in a series of ornamental compositions. No. 297, though based on the Alpine Daisy, 

 is considerably conventionalised, though not to a greater extent than falls strictly within the 

 province of decorative design. In fig. 298 the plant is introduced as a patera in relief work. On 

 looking at the growing plant, the part that at once strikes us is the large and brilliantly-coloured 

 flower, the leaves occupying a very subordinate place in our regard ; the flower, therefore, in the 

 present instance, forms the bulk of the design, the leaves being kept in the background, and 

 strictly subordinate to the floral mass. 



The term patera was originally applied to a broad flat dish, used by the Romans in their 

 sacrificial rites, to receive the blood of the offering, and to pour out libations to the gods. The 

 materials used in its construction were very various, patem having been formed of gold, silver, 

 bronze, glass, stone or marble, and clay. The -word patera was applied to these vessels from their 

 peculiar form, the word being derived from pateo, to lie open. The term is used in ornamental 

 art to describe a painted or carved and rosette-like ornament, of circular form, like an expanded 

 flower, though in some few cases leaf-forms (as the Acanthus) are employed. The patera, though 

 occasionally seen in Gothic art, is more especially a classic and renaissance form ; it is also one of 

 the characteristic features of the ornament of the ancient Assyrians. 



PLATE 37. 



" Bring Corn-flag, Tulip, and Adonis-flower, 

 Fair Ox-eye, Goldylocks, and Columbine, 

 Pinks, Goulans, King-cups, and sweet Sops-in-Wine ^ 

 Blue Hare-bells, Paigles, Pansies, Calaminth, 

 Flower-gentle, and the fair-haired Hyacinth : 

 Bring rich Carnations, Flour-de-luces, Lilies." — Ben Jonson. 



Amongst our wild flowers, numerous as they are, and so varied in their charms, there are 

 few more beautiful than the subject of our thirty-seventh plate, the Columbine, the Aquilegia 

 vulgaris of the botanist. The Columbine is met with in open woodland scenery throughout Europe, 

 and, though frequently cultivated in our gardens, and often, when found, being clearly but an 

 escape from cultivation, is believed to be truly indigenous in several districts in England, Ireland, 

 and the more southern counties of Scotland. When cultivated, it frequently exhibits curious varia- 

 tions, both in form and colour, from the typical plant, in some cases the petals being greatly increased 

 in number ; in others, losing the very characteristic spur ; sometimes, again, having the blossoms 

 pink, at others varying in colour from pure white to a very deep and sombre purple. The leaves 

 are chiefly radical on a long stalk (fig. 306), and divided into three very distinct segments, though 

 a few leaves of much simpler character (fig. 300) are thrown off at intervals from the flowering 

 stem. The flowering stems are ordinarily from one to three feet high, and bear numerous blossoms. 

 The sepals, five in number, are of the same colour as the petals, but differ in form, being more 

 acutely pointed, and not having the spurred character of the petaloid forms with which they 

 alternate. The difference of the shape is very clearly seen in the enlarged plan (fig. 305) of the 

 interior aspect of the flower, the rounded forms of the petals contrasting very happily with the 

 more angular character of calyx segments. The curious aggregation of carpels (five in number) 

 forming the fruit (fig. 301), has a quaint character, not without ornamental value. The Columbine 

 has been from time to time employed in decorative art : we have seen it used as a bordering 

 in a 1 5th century MS. ; it was also a badge of the House of Lancaster. It appears in the spandrils 

 of a brass in Exeter Cathedral, to the memory of Sir Peter Courtenay, who died during the reign 

 of the Lancastrian monarch, Henry IV. The Derby family have, in past times, borne as one of 

 their badges a Columbine sprig. The red rose is the best-known Lancastrian badge, owing to its 

 historic connexion with the desolating civil war between the two great factions, but many other 

 badges were employed : thus, the king already named, besides the red Rose and the Columbine 

 flower, adopted as badges a white swan, a crowned eagle, a fox's brush, a crescent moon, a 



