2] "Invenitque quasi vitem sylvestrem, et collegit ex ea
Colocynthidas agri."--_Vulgate._

COLUMBINE.

(1) _Armado._

I am that flower,

_Dumain._

That Mint.

_Longaville._

That Columbine.

_Love's Labour's Lost_, act v, sc. 2 (661).

(2) _Ophelia._

There's Fennel for you and Columbines.

_Hamlet_, act iv, sc. 5 (189).

This brings us to one of the most favourite of our old-fashioned English
flowers. It is very doubtful whether it is a true native, but from early
times it has been "carefully nursed up in our gardens for the delight
both of its forme and colours" (Parkinson); yet it had a bad character,
as we see from two passages quoted by Steevens--

"What's that--a Columbine?
No! that thankless flower grows not in my garden."

_All Fools_, by CHAPMAN, 1605.

and again in the 15th Song of Drayton's "Polyolbion"--

"The Columbine amongst they sparingly do set."

Spenser gave it a better character. Among his "gardyn of sweet floures,
that dainty odours from them threw around," he places--

"Her neck lyke to a bounch of Cullambynes."

And, still earlier, Skelton (1463-1529) spoke of it with high praise--

"She is the Vyolet,
The Daysy delectable,
The Columbine commendable,
The Ielofer amyable."--_Phyllip Sparrow._

Both the English and the Latin names are descriptive of the plant.
Columbine, or the Dove-plant, calls our attention to the "resemblance of
its nectaries to the heads of pigeons in a ring round a dish, a
favourite device of ancient artists" (Dr. Prior); or to "the figure of a
hovering dove with expanded wings, which we obtain by pulling off a
single petal with its attached sepals" (Lady Wilkinson); though it may
also have had some reference to the colour, as the word is used by
Chaucer--

"Come forth now with thin eyghen Columbine."

_The Marchaundes Tale_ (190).

The Latin name, _Aquilegia_, is generally supposed to come from
_aquilegus_, a water-collector, alluding to the water-holding powers of
the flower; it may, however, be derived from _aquila_, an eagle, but
this seems more doubtful.

As a favourite garden flower, the Columbine found its way into heraldic
blazonry. "It occurs in the crest of the old