A large family, widely distributed. Ours are small herbs, with bitter
milky juice; leaves alternate, without stipules; flowers perfect,
usually with five sepals; corolla with five united lobes; stamens five;
ovary inferior, style long, sometimes hairy, with two to five stigmas,
which do not expand until some time after the flower opens.
There are a great many kinds of Campanula; ours are chiefly perennials,
with more or less bell-shaped corollas; the capsule tipped with the
remains of the calyx and opening at the sides by minute holes. The name
is from the Latin, meaning "little bell."
[Sidenote: =Harebell, Blue Bells of Scotland=
_Campánula rotundifòlia_
=Violet
Summer
West, etc.=]
This is the well-known kind, sung by the poets, and found across our
continent and in Europe and Asia, reaching an altitude of twelve
thousand feet. A charming, graceful little plant, with slender stems,
from six inches to two feet tall, springing from a cluster of dull
green, roundish or heart-shaped leaves, which usually wither away
before the flowers bloom; the stem-leaves long and narrow. The flowers
hang on threadlike pedicels, usually in a loose cluster, and are less
than an inch long, violet or blue and paler at the base, with a long
white pistil and pale yellow or lilac anthers. Neither the plants nor
the flowers are nearly so fragile as they look, for the stems are wiry
and the flowers are slightly papery in texture. This plant is variable
and may include more than one kind. It seems hardly necessary to remark
that it is not to be confused with _Calochortus albus_, which is
unfortunately sometimes called Hairbell and is entirely different, but
I have several times been asked whether they were the same.
[Sidenote: =Bellflower=
_Campánula Scoúleri_
=White, lilac
Summer
Northwest, Cal.=]
A pretty little plant, with smooth, slender stems, from six to eight
inches tall, and smooth, toothed leaves. The flowers are in a loose
cluster and are more the shape of little Lilies than of Blue Bells,
white tinged with lilac, or pale blue, with yellow anthers and a
long pistil with three pink stigmas. The California Harebell, _C.
prenanthoìdes_, has blue flowers, similar in shape.
[Illustration: Bell-flower--Campanula Scouleri.