AQUILEGIAS. 
179 
several years. This makes them well suited for an amateur’s 
parterre, and their robust constitution equally fits them for 
suburban districts. No smoke or dust can injure them, for 
their smooth, shining leaves throw off all extraneous substances 
as readily as water leaves the back of a duck. There is, too, a 
uniformity of habit running through the entire genus, unbroken 
by anything, except a little difference in height, which allows 
of their being grouped to any extent with excellent effect, and 
the variations in stature are so evident in the size and strength of 
the leaves, even in the winter, that a stranger could make no 
glaring mistake in the planting of a number together, for he 
would only have to put the strongest plants in the highest 
places to be pretty certain of having them right in that respect. 
There are not more than three or four which can be considered 
at all tender, which I take to be Skinneri, from Guatemala; 
glandulosa , an Altaian species; viscosa , from the south of 
Europe; and fragrans , from the north of India. It may be 
advisable, for the sake of ensuring their safe keeping through 
the winter, to pot these and preserve them in a cold frame, 
though there is little doubt of their withstanding our ordinary 
winters in a dry situation out of doors. All the Aquilegias 
delight in a light, rich soil, though they do not refuse to grow 
in anything a degree above clay, and in old lime-rubbish are 
most profuse of their flowers. 
Their propagation is most easily effected by seeds, which are 
usually produced in abundance, and should be sown in April, in 
the open ground or in pans placed out of doors, and when the 
plants are large enough to handle they may be pricked out in 
nursery rows, or finally planted where they are to bloom. 
A group composed of the following kinds has a very beautiful 
appearance, which continues for two months in uninterrupted 
splendour: 
Alpina , blue; Canadensis , red; glauca, pink and white; fra¬ 
grans, striped; atropurpurea, dark purple; Skinneri , scarlet and 
green; glandulosa , blue and white ; Garnerianum , purple and 
white striped; pubiflora , pale purple, very curious, and any or 
all the varieties of the common A. vulgaris, some of which I 
have pure white, pink, purple, brown, and all these colours 
blended in each flower, either in blotches, stripes, or spots. 
