Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Columbine

COLUMBINE, a popular name for Aquilegia vulgaris or other species of the genus Aquilegia. The common columbine has drooping purplish-blue flowers with five flat sepals; five petals, with long spurs, often curved; five follicles, the root-leaves twice or thrice ternate, the others singly ternate. The word is also applied to a female character in the Italian comedy, the “Daughter of Cassandra,” and the mythic Harlequin, and to the female dancer in the English pantomime.