Aquilegia (akwile jia)

[NL. (ML. aquile gia, aquileia ), said to be L. aquila, an eagle, whose claws the spurs of the petals are supposed to resemble. Cf. L. Aquileia, Gr. Akv ληία, Aquileia, a town of Austria near the Adriatic.] A genus of acrid plants, natural or IMG:content-1033.png:[blocks in formation] Inflorescence of Aquilegia vulgar is (garden columbine). a, flower; b, same, cut vertically; c, pistils. der Ranunculaceæ, widely distributed over the temperate parts of the northern hemisphere. The flowers have five flat, elliptical, colored sepals, alternating with as many spurred petals; the fruit consists of five follicles with numerous seeds. The spurred petals with incurved heads have been compared to five pigeons, the sepals representing the wings, and to this the English name columbine refers (from Latin columba, a pigeon). Several species are common in cultivation, and, as they are prone to sport and hybridize, the varieties of form and color are numerous. There are 10 North American species, in some of which, from the Rocky Mountains and Mexico, the spurs are several inches in length. Aquilinæ (ak-wi-līnē), n. pl. [NL., IMG:content-1034.png:[blocks in formation] and the ocean. August us extended it as a Roman province Aral (a'rä), n. [L., an altar.] One of the 15 northward to the Loire. It afterward became the Frankish ancient southern constellations; the Altar. It and French duchy (and for some time kingdom) of Aqui is of taine (held as an appanage of the English crown through situated south brighte intermarriage for about 300 years before 1453), and finally, greatly reduced, the French province of Guienne (a medieval corruption of Aquitaine ).