☙ Columbine

Genus Aquilegia L. (1753).WFO

Period English: columbine.

Period French: ancolie f. FDE BD JDS

Aquilegia vulgaris: ancolie commune f. ('common columbine');LB cinq doigts pl. ('five fingers');LB gants de Notre-Dame pl. ('gloves of Notre-Dame');LB aiglantine;LB bonne femme f. ('good woman');LB clochette f. ('little bell');LB colombine f.;LB galanthine f. ('snowdrop');LB gonneau;LB manteau royal m. ('royal mantle').LB

Period German: Aglei f.; JDS Akelei f. JRV

Sentiments:

HypocrisieHypocrisy ◼︎ (1811); BD

Folly ▲︎◆︎ (1825-1869); HP:FE TTA ESP CHW JDS LH HGA:OT RT:LOF

Desertion ▲︎ (1832-1845); SJH S&K

Frivolity ▲︎ (1836); TTA

FĂŒr dich wage ich Alles.For you I dare everything. ⚫︎ (1880); JRV

Dark blue or purple (A. vulgaris):

Resolved to win ▲︎ (1832); EWW

Red (A. canadensis):

Anxious and trembling ▲︎ (1832); EWW

Coloured (Unspecified):

I cannot resign thee ▲︎ (1834); O&B

White:

Resolved to win ▲︎ (1834); O&B

Region:

Native: Species found in Northern Africa; Caucasus; China; across Asia; Mongolia; the Russian Far East; Siberia; the Indian Subcontinent; across Southern and Middle Europe; across Northern America to the Mexico Gulf and Guatemala.WFO

Introduced: Macaronesia; Kamchatka; Australia; Aotearoa; European Russia; Northern Europe; Eastern Canada; Southern South America; and Ecuador.WFO

Seasonality: Perennial, flowers late spring and early summer.

Period Colours: Flowers red, purple, blue, white, &c. SJH Of the common species (A. vulgaris) there are double and single, blue, white, and red; there is a the beautiful dwarf A. Pyrenaica, never exceeding six inches in height, but of a very rich deep blue; there are the red and yellow ones (A. Skinneri and A. formosa) from North America; and, to mention no more, there are the lovely A. cƓrulea and the grand A. chrysantha from the Rocky Mountains, certainly two of the most desirable acquisitions to our hardy flowers that we have had in late years.HNE

Heraldry: Appears in the crest of the Barons Grey of Vitten, such as mentioned in the Painter's bill for the ceremonial of the funeral of William Lord Grey of Vitten:

Item, his creste with the favron, or, sette on a leftehande glove, argent, out thereof issuyinge, caste over threade, a braunch of Collobyns, blue, the stalk vert. (MS. Coll. of Arms, i., 13, fol. 35a)HNE

Also appears in the following arms, as per James Parker:

Argent, a chevron sable between three columbines azure slipped proper--COVENTRY, Lord Mayor of London, 1425.

Argent, a chevron between three columbines pendent azure, barbed gules, slipped vert--TIMOTHY HALL, Bishop of Oxford, 1688-90.

Argent, a chevron engrailed gules between three columbines proper, stalked and leaved vert--COOKS' Company, incorporated 1472.

Sable, a bend argent between three columbines of the second--WALSHE, Norfolk.

Argent, a saltire chequey or and azure between four columbines proper--COLLINGBORNE, Devon.

Or, on a bend azure three buckles of the first, in chief a Columbian flower slipped proper--STIRLING, Dundee.

Or, three columbines buds vert--CADMAN.

Argent, two columbine slips crossed and drooping proper, flowered purple--BESSELL.

Or, a chevron sable between three columbines azure--CHEPMERDEN.

A. caerulea (in lavender and white) is the official state flower of the US state Colorado, adopted on April 14, 1899.CGA

A blue columbine blazon on gold is a symbol of the Toronto district and former city of Scarborough, Ontario, with further specifications:

On a pentagon Azure edged Or a columbine flower also Or [Gold on blue - city dignitaries and functionaries].GGOC

On a pentagon Or edged Azure a columbine flower Gules [Red on gold - all citizens of the city].GGOC

On a pentagon Or edged Azure a columbine flower also Azure [Blue on gold - city employees and agencies].GGOC

On a pentagon Azure edged Or a columbine flower Argent [White on blue - reserved for significant contributions to the Scarborough community].GGOC

Religious: TBC.

Included Species:

Aquilegia vulgaris L. (1753), common columbine;WFO RT:LOF HNE

Aquilegia caerulea E.James (1823), blue columbine;WFO HNE

Aquilegia canadensis L. (1753), red columbine;WFO EWW HNE

Aquilegia chrysantha A.Gray (1873), golden columbine;WFO HNE

Aquilegia formosa Fisch. ex DC. (1824), western columbine (period 'yellow columbine');WFO HNE

Aquilegia pyrenaica DC. (1805), Pyrenean columbine (period 'dwarf columbine');WFO HNE

Aquilegia skinneri Hook. (1842), Skinner's columbine (period 'red columbine');WFO HNE

Cited Verse:

❧ "The Marchantes Tale", Geoffrey Chaucer, Tales of Caunterbury. (c.1400);HNE

❧ "April", Edmund Spenser, The Shepheardes Calender. (1579);HNE

❧ 5.2.661, William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost. (1598);HNE

❧ 4.5.189, William Shakespeare, Hamlet. (1603);HNE

❧ "The Third Song", William Browne, Britannia's Pastorals. (c.1625) pp.81, 82;HNE

❧ "Folly's Flower—The Columbine", Louisa Anne Meredith (neĂ© Twamley), Our Wild Flowers (New Edition). (1843) pp.233-235.

Other Verse:

❧ "Won't Want for Love (Margaret in the Taiga)", The Decemberists (Colin Meloy), The Hazards of Love. USA: Capitol/Rough Trade. (2009) track 4.

đŸœ± On sentiments: The sentiment of folly and its related sentiments is fairly easily made with the columbine, and very early arrived upon at that.

While the name 'columbine' is hypothesised to rise from the resemblence of the flower to a pigeon's foot (columb, dove), similar to the genus name, Aquilegia, comparing it to an eagle's talons, it draws comparison to the famous Columbine of Commedia dell'Arte, a wiley servant woman and mistress of the clown Harlequin. With the long nectaries of the flowers and curled points of the seed pods said to resemble a jester's cap, the emblem is easily found.


In Fabre d'Églantine's 1793 rural emblem annex to the French Republican calendar, Ancolie is the emblem of 6 FlorĂ©al (25 April).


Abécédaire de Flore

B. DelachĂ©naye, 1811 ◼︎


EMBLÉMES TIRÉS DU RÈGNE VÉGÉTAL.


A.


Ancolie signifie hypocrisie.


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