The scarlet fritillary is without doubt the most beautiful of all our species. It is a wonderful blossom, which seems as much of a marvel to us every time we behold it as it did at first. Usually there are from one to nine of the brilliant bells; but the effect can be imagined when as many as thirty-five have been seen upon a single stem!
F. coccinea, Greene, is another beautiful scarlet-and-yellow species, found in the mountains of Sonoma and Napa Counties. This has from one to four flowers, which are an inch long, with simple campanulate outline, without recurving tips.
[NORTHERN SCARLET LARKSPUR—Delphinium nudicaule.]
![[NORTHERN SCARLET LARKSPUR—Delphinium nudicaule.]](#3624944100741987669_f135.png.id-8839704210149631983.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}
COLUMBINE.
Aquilegia truncata, Fisch. and Mey. Buttercup or Crowfoot Family.
Stems.—One to three feet high; very slender. Leaves.—Mostly radical; divided into thin, distant leaflets. Flowers.—Scarlet; tinged with yellow; eighteen to twenty-four lines across. Parts in fives. Sepals.—Petaloid; rotately spreading. Petals.—Tubular; produced into long spurs or horns. Stamens.—Numerous on the receptacle; much exserted. Pistils.—Five; simple. Hab.—Throughout California.
Sprung in a cleft of the wayside steep, And saucily nodding, flushing deep, With her airy tropic bells aglow,— Bold and careless, yet wondrous light, And swung into poise on the stony height, Like a challenge flung to the world below! Skirting the rocks at the forest edge With a running flame from ledge to ledge, Or swaying deeper in shadowy glooms, A smoldering fire in her dusky blooms; Bronzed and molded by wind and sun, Maddening, gladdening every one With a gypsy beauty full and fine,— A health to the crimson columbine!
—Elaine Goodale