AQUILEGIA CANADENSIS |3 GRACILIS— SLENDER CANADIAN COLUMBINE. 
Class XIII. POLYANDRIA. Order V. PENTAGYNIA. 
Natural Order, RANUNCULACE^. THE CROW-FOOT TRIBE. 
1. The stamens exhibited with a portion of the corolla. 2. Pistils. 
Generic Character. — Cal. none. Cor. Petals five, lanceolate, ovate, flat, spreading, equal. Nectaries 
five, equal, alternate with the petals; each horned, gradually broader upwards, with an oblique mouth, as- 
cending outwardly, annexed inwardly to the receptacle; produced below into a long attenuated tube with 
an obtuse top. Stam. Filaments thirty to forty, subulate, the outer ones shorter; anthers oblong, erect, 
the height of the nectaries. Pist. Germs five, ovate-oblong, ending in subulate styles longer than the 
stamens. Stigmas erect, simple. Chaffs ten, wrinkled, short, separate, and involving the germs. Per. 
Capsules five, distinct, cylindric, parallel, straight, acuminate, one-valved, gaping from the tops inward. 
Seeds very many, ovate, keeled, anexed to the gaping suture. 
Specific Character. — Nectaries straight. Stamens longer than the corolla. 
Root perennial. Stem slender, erect, of a bright brown, supporting both leaves and flowers towards 
its summit: these leaves are sometimes simple, and merely lobed, while those from the root are compound, 
being biternate. The flowers are supported on foot-stalks from two to three inches in length. The corolla 
is composed of five nectaries, of a strong red towards their summit, and of a bright yellow at the mouth, 
between each of which is seated five small linear petals, also red. The pericarp is composed of five lobes. 
The original species of Aquilegia canadensis has long been known and admired by the cultivators of 
choice flowers. The present figure is a variety which has been produced from that alluded to, and is found 
to possess all the attractive qualities of the parent plant, added to a peculiar delicacy of nature of its own, 
which has given rise to its present distinguishing name as a variety. Its style of growth is more slender 
and delicate than in the original species ; and it requires more delicacy of treatment in its cultivation, 
being very particular in its soil and situation. It should be planted in a light earth composed of decayed 
leaves with a small portion of loom : it is more likely to succeed if kept in a pot. Thus treated, its 
beauties are displayed to better advantage ; and it may here be better protected against a very destructive 
enemy, the wire-worm, which frequently attacks it in the open ground. It generally attains the height of 
from nine inches to a foot, producing a succession of flowers during the month of May. It will perfect its 
seeds, by which means it is readily increased. 
The species from which this variety was produced is a native of Canada, and was introduced in 1640.* 
Mr. Howitt observes that in September “The general aspect of nature is decidedly autumnal. The 
trees are beginning to change colour; the orchards are affluent of pears, plums, and apples; and the hedges 
are filled with the abundance of their wild produce, crabs, black glossy clusters of privet, buckthorn, and 
elder-berries which furnish the farmer with a cordial cup on his return from market on a winter’s eve, and 
blackberries, reminding us of the Babes in the Wood. 
Their little hands and pretty lips 
With blackberries were dyed ; 
And when they saw the darksome night, 
They sate them down and cried. 
The hedgerows are also brightened with a profusion of scarlet berries of hips, haws, honeysuckles, 
viburnum, and bryony. The fruit of the mountain-ash, woody nightshade, and wild-service is truly 
beautiful; nor are the violet-hued sloes and bullaces, or the crimson, mossy excrescences of the wild rose- 
tree, insignificant objects amid the autumnal splendours of the waning year. 
Notwithstanding the decrease of the day, the weather of this month is for the most part, splendidly 
calm; and Nature, who knows the most favourable moment to display all her works, has now instructed 
the geometric spider to form its radiated circle on every bush, and the gossamer spider to hang its silken 
threads on every blade of grass. We behold its innumerable filaments glittering with dew in the morning ; 
and sometimes, such is the immense quantity of this secretion, that it may be seen floating in a profusion 
* Flora Conspicua. 
