_Campanula rotundifolia_
_Flowers_--Bright blue or violet-blue, bell-shaped, 1/2 in. long, or
over, drooping from hair-like stalks. Calyx of 5-pointed, narrow,
spreading lobes; 5 slender stamens alternate with lobes of corolla, and
borne on summit of calyx tube, which is adherent to ovary; 1 pistil
with 3 stigmas in maturity only. _Stem:_ Very slender, 6 in. to 3 ft.
high, often several from same root; simple or branching. _Leaves:_
Lower ones nearly round, usually withered and gone by flowering season;
stem leaves narrow, pointed, seated on stem. _Fruit:_ An egg-shaped,
pendent, 3-celled capsule with short openings near base; seeds very
numerous, tiny.
_Preferred Habitat_--Moist rocks, uplands.
_Flowering Season_--June-September.
_Distribution_--Arctic regions of Europe, Asia, and America; southward
on this continent, through Canada to New Jersey and Pennsylvania;
westward to Nebraska, to Arizona in the Rockies, and to California in
the Sierra Nevadas.
The inaccessible crevice of a precipice, moist rocks sprayed with the
dashing waters of a lake or some tumbling mountain stream, wind-swept
upland meadows, and shady places by the roadside may hold bright bunches
of these hardy bells, swaying with exquisite grace on tremulous,
hair-like stems that are fitted to withstand the fiercest mountain
blasts, however frail they appear. How dainty, slender, tempting these
little flowers are! One gladly risks a watery grave or broken bones to
bring down a bunch from its aerial cranny.