114 WILD AND CULTIVATED FLOWERS 
double white one tinged with pink, like the inside 
of a shell; another is blue, with a paler, almost 
white centre. This one is flatter in shape and 
larger around than most of the others. I can 
hardly tell which of these columbines I like best, 
they are all so pretty. 
Hybridization, a long word at the tip of gar- 
deners’ tongues, which means the crossing of plants 
and production of new varieties, has had a great 
triumph with columbines. In gardens they have 
become vigorous plants, standing up straight to a 
height of three or four feet. No doubt, in pro- 
ducing so many forms and colours of columbines, 
gardeners have thought that they were greatly out- 
stripping those that dwell in the woods. But as I 
recall the wild one with its red and yellow bell nod- 
ding from its wire-like stalk, I love it best of all. 
Still, it would not be as showy in a garden as the 
cultivated varieties. It does not like the full blast 
of the sun and the mixed company of the great 
world. It prefers to stay in the peaceful, shady 
woods, where the ruby-throated humming-bird may 
find it and sip of its nectar. 
Some time ago Mr. Percy and Little Joseph 
transplanted a number of wild columbines, or rock- 
bells, as Queenie calls them, to our wood-border. 
Mr. Percy recognised them long before they had 
opened their leaves, when to Joseph and me they 
looked as if they might turn out to be ferns. He 
then chose small, young plants for taking up, as 
