ONCE more we have to discourse upon an "old-fashioned" garden flower that everybody knows and loves, and yet very few make it the subject of any special care in cultivation. It is astonishing how well it can take care of itself, as indeed do all the aquilegias, for they scatter their seeds freely and appear in all sorts of places, and it requires a rough hand and hard heart to root them out and call them "weeds." According to the derivation of the word from the Latin columbina, a columbine should bear a likeness in some way or other to a dove or pigeon. If there be any resemblance, however, it is of a round-about sort. The nectaries are rather peculiar, and may be likened to the heads of pigeons. The Latin name aquilegia means "like an eagle," and so in both languages the flower suggests the existence of a bird.

The common columbine is a British plant, by no means common, though in a few places plentiful, its favourite haunts being woods and coppices. When grown in the garden border it scatters its seeds plentifully, and thus renews itself without any care. But fine flowers are not often obtained from the plants thus naturalised in the garden. There must be careful selection and good cultivation to insure the establishment of a good strain, and none but the best should ever be allowed to remain after the first flowers have been seen. The double kinds are certainly handsomer than the single, and as they do not produce seed, or at all events but little, they must be multiplied by division. Any good soil will suit them, and they bear partial shade without injury.

The economy of the reproduction of this flower is deserving of study. The nectaries, that may be likened to the heads of birds, secrete a syrup that appears to be needed to promote the growth of the stamens. These are produced in a series of circles which have been perfected successively from within outwards, each series changing from a recurved to an erect attitude to discharge its pollen, the result being a very abundant production of seed.

The hardy species of columbines that may be met with in gardens where choice plants are cherished have no place in the catalogue of "familiar" flowers. `They are, however, extremely beautiful and intensely interesting. The most useful of all is the noble blue and whit e Aquilegia glandulosa, which rises to a foot in height, and produces a profusion of flowers. Aquilegia coerulea is the most beautiful of all, though it is certainly not showy; its large and singular flowers--blue and white, and tipped with green, and as it were twisted together--are rare and delicate, but make no appeal to the casual eye. The showiest of the series are Aquilegia Skinneri, a bold plant, rising a yard high, with red and yellow flowers; and Aquilegia truncata, about the same height, the flowers bright orange-scarlet. The Alpine columbine (A. Alpina) is a charming plant, the height about a foot, the flowers wholly blue, or with white centre. Although some of these are comparatively new, they belong properly to the "old-fashioned" class, and are of the kind Clare had in his mind when he wove a garland such as the heart will not willingly let die.

"The shining pansy, trimmed with golden lace:

The tall topped lark-heels, feathered thick with flowers;

The woodbine, climbing o'er the door in bowers;

The London tufts of many a mottled hue;

The pale pink pea, and monkshood darkly blue;

The white and purple gillyflowers, that stay

Lingering in blossom summer half away;

The single blood walls, of a luscious smell,

Old-fashioned flowers which housewives love so well;

The columbines, stone blue, or deep night brown,

Their honey-comb like blossoms hanging down;

Each cottage garden's fond adopted child,

Though heaths still claims them, where they yet grow wild;

With marjoram knots, sweet brier, and ribbon grass,

And lavender, the choice of every lass,"

During the past two or three years a new and very welcome delight has been given to the flower-loving public in the exhibition of new varieties of columbines, by those eminent collectors and cultivators of rare plants, Messrs. Veitch and Son of Chelsea. At festival meetings of the Royal Horticultural and Royal Botanic Societies these new types have been presented in large groups, tastefully arranged, and have taken captive the eyes of many visitors, who have found it hard to believe that such exquisitely beautiful subjects might be grown to perfection in any open garden with the aid of sunshine and fresh air. It is customary for the first agreeable impression of a new plant or flower to be accompanied by the thought that it must be of exotic production, requiring hothouse cultivation, and so of course these new aquilegias were regarded as rare and tender, whereas they may be grown by the thousand and the ten thousand from seed costing but a small sum, and what is called a "common garden border" will suffice for all their needs. The raiser of these charming varieties was Mr. James Douglas, the gardener at Loxford Hall.