August 5. THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 2&5 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
u w 
l) L> 
AUGUST 5 — 11, 1852. 
Weather near London 
Barometer. Thermo. Wind. 
N 1851. 
Rain in In. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R. & S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
5 Tn 
Long-leaved Mint flowers. 
30.297 — 30.226 71—53 
E. 
_ 
32*. 4 
40 a. 7 
10 10 
19 
5 
40 
218 
6 F 
Prince Alfred b. 1844. 
30.234 — 30.173' 67—53 
E. 
— 
33 
38 
10 27 
20 
5 
33 
219 
7 .3 
Venetian Sumach flowers. 
30.056 — 30.014 75—55 
N.E. 
— 
35 
36 
10 45 
21 
5 
26 
220 
8 Sun 
9 Sunday after Trinity. 
30.018 —29-988 1 80—52 
N.E. 
— 
36 
34 
ll 7 
€ 
5 
19 
221 
9 M 
Purple Mclic flowers. 
30.031 —29.964 69—55 
N.E. 
— 
38 
32 
11 34 
23 
5 
11 
222 
10 Tu 
St. Barnaby’s Thistle flowers. 
30.085 — 30.0/5 71—53 
N.E. 
— 
40 
31 
morn. 
24 
5 
2 
223 
It W 
Dog Days end. 
30.106 — 30.098 79—52 
S. 
— 
41 
29 
0 8 
25 
4 
53 
224 
Meteorology of tqe Week. —At Chiswick, from observations during the last twenty-five years, the average highest and lowest tempera- 
tures of these days are 75° and 51.8° 
in 1833. During the period 104 days 
respectively. The greatest heat, 9 3°, occurred on the 10th in 1842 ; and the lowest cold 
were fine, and ou 71 rain fell. 
36°, 
on the 6th 
BRITISH WILD BLOWERS. 
CROWFOOTS—RANUNCULACE.E. 
(Continued from page 250.) 
AQUILEGIA. COLUMBINE. 
j Generic Character. —Calyx none. Petals live, below the 
I fruit, egg-shaped, mostly pointed, nearly Hat, equal, spread¬ 
ing. Nectaries five, equal, alternate with the petals, each of 
them tubular, gradually widening upwards, oblique at the 
mouth, the outer margin ascending, the inner attached to 
I the receptacle; their lower portion extended into a long 
tapering spur, blunt at the extremity. Stamens numerous, 
j thirty to forty, awl-shaped, erect; the outer ones shortest; 
innermost barren, thickened, and wrinkled, closely enfolding 
the germens. Anthers terminal, heart-shaped, erect. Gas¬ 
mens five, oblong, egg-shaped, tapering into awl-shaped 
upright styles, with simple stigmas. Scedvesse/s ( follicles) 
five, cylindrical, pointed, parallel, straight, of one valve 
bursting at the inner side downwards. Seeds numerous, 
egg-shaped, smooth, keeled, at the edges of the seed-vessel. 
Aquilegia vulgaris : Common Columbine. 
Description - It is a perennial. Boot tuberous. Herbage 
smooth and naked. Stem erect, tw r o or three feet high, 
somewhat leafy, round, generally branched, and bearing 
several flowers. Root-leaves on long stalks, twice .'1-leafleted ; 
leaflets broadly wedge-shaped, bluntly lobed and cut, milky- 
green beneath ; those on the stem more simple, and nearly 
stalkless. Stem-leaves, hand-shaped, with oval entire lobes. 
Flowers hanging down, bright purple, on purplish, somewhat 
downy, stalks. Petals pointed. Nectaries much incurved at 
the end of the spur. Germens and Seed-vessels hairy. There 
is a sub-species with stems one-flowered; smaller size, and 
spurs less curved. 
Places where found .—In meadows, pastures, and thickets. 
Not common. 
Time of flowering .—June and July. 
History .—We think the botanical name is derived from 
Aqnilex, a conveyer of water by pipes, referring to the 
tubular form of the nectaiies. The English name is derived 
from Columba, a dove, from the fancied resemblance of the 
nectaries to the head and neck of that bird. The usual 
colour of the flowers, when wild, is pale blue, but they occur 
of other tints, and in gardens they appear with their petals 
and nectaries doubled in various modes, and of still more 
dissimilar colours. All parts of the Columbine have been 
recommended for use in medicine, but it belongs to a dan¬ 
gerous tribe, and Linnajus knew of children killed by an 
excessive dose of it. Probably the only mode of employing 
the Columbine beneficially, is by making a tincture of its 
flowers, adding to it a little, sulphuric acid, and employing it 
as a wash for scorbutic affections of the gums. Goats eat 
] it, but other domestic animals reject it. As the form of the 
j nectary prevents the bee obtaining its honey in the usual 
mode, this insect tears an entrance near the bottom of the 
nectary to enable it to introduce its proboscis. The Colum¬ 
bine has been made, says Mr. Phillips, the emblem of Polly, 
but whether on account of the party-colour which it fre¬ 
quently takes in the garden, or in allusion to the shape of 
the nectary, which turns over like the caps of the old jesters, 
and those which painters give' to Folly, we are left to surmise. 
In some country places, W. Browne, the poet tells us 
“ The Columbine in tawny often taken, 
Is then ascribed to such as are forsaken.” 
Returning to the subject of the early history of Poultry, 
where we left it at page 230, we must commence by 
observing, that in our earliest printed work upon 
English farming, Sir Anthony Eitzberbert’s Boise of 
Husbandry, published in 1532, there occurs no other 
notice than the following, under the title of “ What 
tea rises a Wyfe shulde do in generally 
“ Thou must gyve thy poleyu (pullen, or poultry) meate 
in the mornynge, and whan tyme of the yere commeth thou 
must take liede how thy liennes, duckes, and geese do lay, 
and to gather up theyr egges, and whan they wuxo brodye, 
to sette them there as noo beastes, swyne, nor other vermyn 
hurte them. And thou must knowe, that all hole (whole) 
footed fowles will sytte a moneth, and all cloven footed 
fowles wyll sytte but three wekes, except a peylienne, and 
great fowles as Cranes, Bustardes, and suche other. And 
whan they have broughte forthe theyr byrdes, to see that 
they be well ltepte from the Gleyd, Crowes, Fullymartes, 
ancl other vermyne.” 
We may observe, also, judging from the prices, that 
poultry were scarce at that period, for money was then 
of much greater value than in the present century. 
Thus wc have before us a memorandum, made iu 1530, 
No. CCI., Vol. VIII. 
