AQUILEGIA GLANDULOSA.— GLANDULAR COLUMBINE. 
Class XIII. POLYANDRIA.— Order II. PENTAGYNIA. 
Natural Order, RANUNCULACEiE. — THE CROW-FOOT TRIBE. 
Character of the Genus, Aquilegia. Calyx of five deciduous coloured petaloid sepals. Petals 
five, two-lipped and gaping at top, the outer lip large and flat, the inner very small, produced downwards 
into as many spurs projecting between the sepals. Stamens many, arranged in five or ten bundles, 
the inner ones without anthers and with broad membranous filaments. Ovaries five. Capsules as many, 
erect, many-seeded, pointed by the styles. 
Description of the Species, Aquilegia Glandulosa. Stem usually about a foot to eighteen 
inches high, not much branched, nearly smooth in the lower part, more or less pubescent and glandular in 
the upper part. Leaves chiefly radical, or proceeding from near the base of the stem, with long slender 
footstalks divided above the middle into three, each bearing three nearly sessile segments, which are rounded 
somewhat cuneate, and divided to about the middle into three lobes, which are themselves crenated or obtusely 
lobed; these leaves are smooth and somewhat glaucous underneath; the few upper leaves much smaller, and 
often consist of a few linear segments only. Flowers solitary on the peduncles, large, nodding. Sepals oval, 
oblong, rather pointed, of a deep blue, smooth. Petals not half so long as the sepals, the lamina obovate, 
blunt, of a pale yellowish colour, spurs blueish, much shorter than the lamina, the extremity blunt, and 
more or less curved, but usually much less hooked than in Aquilegia vulgaris. Stamens shorter than the 
petals. Capsules pubescent, six to ten in number, very seldom reduced to five. 
Popular and Geographical Notice. The Columbines are all inhabitants of the temperate or even 
the cold regions of the Northern hemisphere in the new world as well as in the old. The greater number of 
species are found in central Asia. They usually prefer light woods in mountainous countries, although some 
of the more alpine species are also found in the crevices of elevated rocks. The present species, very 
common in the alpine and subalpine regions of the Altai Chain, there replaces our European Aquilegia 
Alpina, which it closely resembles, and of which it may possibly be a mere variety. It has, however, been 
distinguished by the shortness of the spurs of the petals, and by the number of ovaries, which are seldom if 
ever more than five, in the European species, and very rarely so few as five in the Siberian one. It is also 
a taller growing and handsomer plant, with larger flowers, and the petals are more frequently, though not 
constantly, white. None of these characters appear indeed to be absolute in all cases, but are nearly as 
good as those which serve to distinguish many other species of this most natural genus.* 
Columbine, Cock’s-foot, or Culverwort. — The botanical name for this plant, Aquilegia or 
Aquilina, is derived from aquila, an eagle, from a notion that the nectaries resemble an eagle’s claws. Our 
English name, columbine, is derived from the resemblance which, in a wild state, these parts bear, both in 
form and colour, to the head and neck of a dove, for which the Latin name is Columba. — French , aiglantine, 
ancolie, la columbine, la galantine; gands de notre dame [our lady’s gloves,]' — Italian , achellea, colombina, 
perfetto amore [true love,] celidona maggiore [great celandine;] at Venice, galeti. 
The Common Columbine is generally, in its wild state, of a blue colour, whence it is named the Blue 
Starry, but in the neighbourhood of Berne, and in Norfolk, it has been found both with red and white 
flowers. It is common in woods, hedges, and bushes, in most parts of Europe. They are greatly changed 
by culture : become double in various ways ; and are of almost all colours ; blue, white, red, purple : flesh, 
ash, and chestnut coloured blue and white, and red and white It is a perennial plant, and, with us, 
flowers in June. ' 
Every part of this plant has been considered as a useful medicine, but Linnaeus affirms that, from his 
own knowledge, children have lost their lives by an over dose of it. That might, however, be the case with 
some of our best medicines. 
The Alpine Columbine has blue flowers tipped with a yellowish green, blowing in May and June, 
(Biennial.) 
The Canadian Columbine flowers in April : the flowers are yellow on the in, red on the outside, 
(Perennial.) 
The Columbines may be increased by parting the roots ; but, as they are apt to degenerate, are most 
commonly raised from seed : these will not grow to flower till the second year ; and, as you cannot be sure 
* The Botanist, 
