kinds, but the doubling, though in some cases it makes a good enough
flower, changes the true character so much that it is a Bell-flower no
longer; and we think that a Bell-flower should be a bell, and should
hang and swing, and not be made into a flattened flower set rather
tightly on an ungraceful, thickened stem.
Another beautiful Campanula is _C. latifolia_, especially the
white-flowered form. It is not only a first-rate flower, but it gives
that pleasant impression of wholesome prosperity that is so good to see.
The tall, pointed spike of large milk-white bells is of fine form, and
the distinctly-toothed leaves are in themselves handsome. Like all the
Bell-flowers, the bloom is cut into six divisions--“lobes of the
corolla,” botanists call them. Each division is sharply pointed and
recurved or rolled back after the manner of many of the Lilies. This
fine Campanula is not only a good plant for the flower-border, but also
for half-shady places in quiet nooks where the garden joins woodland, in
the case of those fortunate gardens that have such a desirable
frontier-land; the sort of place where the instinct of the best kind of
gardener will prompt him to plant, or rather to sow, the white Foxglove,
and to plant the white French Willow (_Epilobium_).
Nothing is more commonly seen in gardens than wide-spread neglected
patches of _Campanula grandis_. The picture shows it better grown. It
spreads quickly and in many gardens flowers only sparingly, because the
tufts should have been oftener divided. It is perhaps the most commonly
grown of all, and though, as the picture shows, it can be more worthily
used than is ordinarily done, it is by no means so pretty a plant as
others of its family.
In good soils in our southern counties the tall and beautiful Chimney
Campanula (_C. pyramidalis_), commonly grown in pots for the
conservatory, should be largely used in the borders; it also loves a
place in a wall joint. It is a plant that we are so used to see in a pot
that we are apt to forget its great merit in the open ground.
Of the smaller Bell-flowers, _C. carpatica_, both blue and white, is one
of the very best of garden plants; delightful from the moment when the
first tuft of leaves comes out of the ground in spring till its full
blooming time in middle summer. No plant is better for the front edge
of a border, especially where the edge is of stone; though it is just
tall enough to show up well over a stout box-edging.
The biennial Canterbury Bells are well known and in every garden. Their
only disadvantage is that they flower in the early summer and then have
to be cleared away, leaving gaps that may be difficult to fill. The
careful gardener, foreseeing this, arranges so that their near
neighbours in the border shall be such as can be led or trained over to
take their places. It should not be forgotten that the Canterbury Bell
is an admirable rock or wall plant, where the size of a rock-wall admits
of anything so large. The wild plant from which it came has its home in
rocky clefts in Southern Italy.