A CURIOUS COLUMBINE FLOWER. 
BY WILLARD N. CLUTE. 
^ MOXG the more interesting freaks of plant life are 
^ 1 those that are of such a nature as to throw light 
upon the \va3' in which plant structures have been 
evolved. An interesting instance of this kind was dis- 
covered the writer last June while botanizing in the 
vicinity of Joliet, Illinois, and is illus- 
trated herewith. It was produced b^- 
the common columbine {Aquilegia Can- 
adensis) and is manifestly a flower, 
though at a short distance it had 
scarcely any resemblance to ordinar^^ 
blossoms.' The plant that produced 
this curiosity was like ordinary plants 
save for its anomalous blossoms of 
which it produced a profusion. These latter are among 
the most complete cases of "reversion" that have come 
under the writer's notice. There is no trace of the tubular 
spurs of the ordinary columbine flower, but all parts, 
petals, sepals, stamens and pistils are replaced b3' flat 
greenish leaf-like organs. Each whorl of the flower is 
separated trom the others by an appreciable intemode 
and viewing the flower it is easy to believe the botanist's 
statement that a flower is a modified branch. As one 
might expect the lowest whorl, or that which answers to 
the cah'x, is most distinctly developed, but the petals are 
also noticeable and only the stamens and carpels exhibit 
a tendency to run together. The stamens give no token 
of their nature by their form, but the carpels, though leaf- 
like, have their edges partly rolled toward the center of 
the upper surface and on each edge is a row ot embryo 
seeds. From this it appears that the carpel is morpho. 
logically the equivalent of a single leaf with its edges 
incurv-ed to form a cylinder, and the ovules as bud-like 
bodies from the margin. 
The plant that bore these blossoms was transferred to 
the Forest of Arden, near Joliet, by the forester Mr. H. C- 
