the soil. A single specimen of what appears to be a new species. of this genus was brought by Mr. Louis King from Portland, Or., but being very badly preserved I must leave its description for some future time.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BOTANY. No. 5. BY MARCUS E. JONES.

REVISION OF THE AMERICAN SPECIES OF AQUILEGIA NORTH OF MEXICO.

In studying the species of this genus a person is struck with the amount of labor wasted in describing them, and the uncertainty attaching to the species recognized. This is due largely to the multitude of characters belonging to the genus that are not given in any book and which most people do not know are generic. The really specific characters are few. There are two distinct lines of species in the genus so far as our western ones are concerned, which hybridize among themselves and possibly with each other. One line has petal-limb dilated above and flowers never truly red; the other has petal-limb not dilated above and red or reddish flowers. The following gives my views of this genus, though I am inclined to think that further research may prove that A. flavescens will become a variety of cærulea, A. formosa a variety of A. Canadensis, while the margin between cærulea and chrysantha is very slight.

AQUILEGIA L. COLUMBINE.

Parts of flowers in fives (except stamens) petal-like, alternate, stamens many. Sepals narrowed at base into a short claw and bent at base, usually acute, equaling the limb of petal or longer, widely spreading or reflexed, rather veiny, often greentipped and simulating a gland. Petals either saccate at insertion or prolonged backward into hollow, usually tapering spurs which are short to four inches long and with a nectary in the tip set obliquely on the spur; limb of petals either almost obsolete or nearly equaling the sepals, usually rather thick, erect, and yellow, or sometimes white at least at the tip. Stamens

separate, many, an inch or less long, erect except in the first stages; anthers yellow, elliptical to oval, and usually obtuse at both ends, basifixed, one-half a line or less long, wider after bursting, filaments yellow and filiform at apex, white and enlarged and scale-like at base; next the ovaries is a sheath of sterile filaments which are enlarged throughout, nearly equaling the others, lanceolate, ridged, corrugated and white. Ovaries five, erect, closely aggregated, linear-cylindric, densely white-pubescent with glandular hairs up to the glabrous, filiform, persistent styles (two to four lines long) which with the ovaries are a trifle shorter than the stamens in flower, but the rapid development of the ovaries soon thrusts out the styles; stigma very small and capitate. At maturity the carpels lengthen to about an inch (half an inch in one case) and are linear, straight, but bent outwards at tip, cross section obovate, opening along the inner side from the oblique tip down, sparsely glandular-hairy, reticulated; seeds many, in a single row, horizontal, obliquely obovate cylindric, a line long, rounded on the back, with sharp inner edge, very black, smooth and shining when fully ripe, but less mature ones are brown. Flowers paniculate, racemose, or in one species single, the main stem sending off, usually above the middle, three to five branches remotely, each branch being subtended by a single leaf, branches a foot or less long, and lower half naked while the upper half has one to three flowers or rarely is again branched with one. to three flowers on each branch, flowers terminal and centrifugal (central one blooming first). Peduncles usually with leafy bracts at base, and central one often with two in the middle, peduncles one to four inches long, more or less bent, but erect in fruit, longer than the flowers, glandular hairy. Roots perennial, fusiform, thick, with many short stout spreading branches at the top which are covered and much thickened with closely imbricated and old leaf sheaths. Stems tufted, erect, bent at base, tall (except in two species), usually leafless below, especially the lower third. Leaves with short, ridged sheaths one-fourth to an inch long; root leaves biternate (triternate in one species and with petiole absent in another), many, petioles long, generally about one-third the length of the stems; primary divisions of petiole two to four

inches long, secondary ones an inch long, or even all but the central one absent; leaflets irregularly two to three-lobed and the lobes entire to three to five lobed or toothed, and teeth rounded and blunt, leaflets obovate, cuneate, or broader, one-half to two inches long, seldom pubescent, glaucous or paler below; lower stem leaves similar with shorter petiole; upper stem leaves without a petiole; uppermost leaves reduced to simple or three to five-lobed usually leafy bracts which are usually acute; the development of the stem leaves depends upon the exposure inversely. The whole plant except the leaflets is covered with a glandular hairy pubescence which is scarcely visible at times. and at others is very pronounced, but is of no specific value. It is most pronounced on the peduncles and young pods, and is more evident above. The genus frequents open woods in the East, and stream banks and moist mountain sides at rather high elevations in the West.

Limb of petal somewhat dilated above, oblong to rhomboidal, large, at least half as long as the sepals, and about equaling the stamens, flowers not red. Petals rounded, truncate or emarginale. Dilata.

Stems tall, often three feet high, nearly glabrous below; sepals acute, spreading, rather thin, nectary small. ++ Spurs long, straight, slender, two to four inches long, not shorter than sepals, nectary very small, apparently abortive; flowers large, one and one half to four inches wide, ascending; limb of petal four to six lines wide, six to ten long or even more.

A. cærulea, James. Sepals white or lavender, lanceolate to broadly ovate, one to two inches long, occasionally tinged with pink or yellow; flowers two to four inches wide, petal-limb six to eight lines long, white to deep cream yellow, sepals and petals both frequently veined with blue, fragrant.

Abundant in Colorado at middle elevations 7000 to 11,000 feet altitude in all the mountains, mostly on moist mountain sides; very abundant in the Wasatch and Uintas at 8000 to 10,000 feet altitude and therefore subalpine, also in the Pine Valley Mountains in southern Utah; less abundant south and

west in the other ranges, also Mt. Ibapah in the Deep Creek Mountains, Jeff Davis Peak and the Schell Creek Mountains in eastern Nevada at high elevations, and probably in the East Humboldt Mountains; rare in Nevada and the Sierras of California, also northward to the Arctic regions. Much esteemed in cultivation where it is bluer.

A. chrysantha, Gray. A. leptocera var. flava Gray Pl. Wright 2, 9. A. chrysantha, Gray Proc. A. A. S., 8, 621. Flowers golden yellow throughout, one to two inches wide, spurs much. longer than the sepals and very slender; sepals lanceolate, less than an inch long; petals as above.

Lower elevations 6000 to 8000 feet altitude in Colorado, and higher altitudes southward to 10,500 feet in Arizona. Rocky Mountains of Colorado from Colorado Springs south through New Mexico and Arizona. Not yet known in Utah. This appears to hybridize with cærulea, the flowers being yellow or tinged with blue and spurs shorter. Should it become necessary to recognize the varietal name, this will become A. flava (Gray).

A. longissima, Gray. Flowers yellow, spurs filiform, four inches long, and of about the same width throughout, petals nearly equaling the lanceolate sepals, elongated-spatulate. May be a form of the above.

Northern Mexico, Palmer.

Spurs short and thick, six lines long or less, somewhat hooked at the end, not longer than the small sepals, nectary large, flowers small, not even an inch wide and often very small, nodding or ascending, yellow, but often tinged with red or blue.

A. flavescens, Watson King's Rep. 5, 10. Sepals lanceolate to oval, six to eight lines long; petal-limb somewhat dilated, about equaling the spur and nearly as long as the stamens, four lines wide, anthers elliptical-oblong, when the flowers are very small all the parts are small in proportion, except the stamens, which remain the same. All but the leaves often pubescent.

Six thousand to nine thousand feet altitude along streams in very wet, exposed, and boggy places, rarely at high elevations, most abundant at low elevations, cañons of the Wasatch from

central Utah northward to British America. It also occurs in the Uinta Mountains, but does not seem to exist in Nevada or westward. June to August. At high elevations it hybridizes with A. cærulea, the flowers being intermediate in size with shorter and stouter spurs than cærulea, whitish or tinged with blue.

Stems very short or none; flowers blue, small, one half

inch wide or less, spurs somewhat hooked, two lines or less long, shorter than the limb of the petal.

A. brevistyla, Hooker. Flora Bor. Am. 1, 24. Stems six inches high or less, densely tufted, not surpassing the leaves, stem leaves petioled and scarcely differing from the others, pedicels two to three inches long, very slender; sepals oval and very obtuse and green to lanceolate, acute, and colored, four lines long, three lines wide; limb of petal oblong, yellow, a little shorter than the sepals and a little longer than the stamens; carpels about an inch long, and styles in fruit two lines long, anthers narrowly oval and very small.

High Alpine regions in meadows, Colorado and northward to the Arctic regions. Not seen in Utah or westward.

A. Jonesi, Parry Am. Nat. 8, 211. Named for Captain Jones. Monocephalous, peduncle two to three inches long; leaves all crowded and common petiole absent or nearly so; leaflets small, obovate, entire, nine; spur almost obsolete. Probably a form of the above.

Summit of Phlox Mountain, Wyoming.

**Limb of petal not dilated above, usually with a very short,

triangular tip or narrower, styles four lines long, flowers red, rarely yellow, at least the tip of the limb of the petal yellow or white, acute to nearly truncate, sepals acute, stamens usually much surpassing the petals, spurs rather stout, generally somewhat hooked, nectary large, flowers nodding, one to one and one-half inches wide, tall plants. Rubescentes.

A. Canadensis L. Spurs one-half to twice longer than sepals, three-fourths to one inch long; sepals ovate one-half inch long; petal limb oblong to nearly square, four lines long, two to three