CAMPANULA*. Linnean Class and Order. PENTA'NDRIA †, MONOGY'NIA. Natural Order. CAMPANULA'CEE, Juss. Gen. Plant. P. 163.Lindl. Syn. p. 135; Introd. to Nat. Syst. of Bot. p. 185.-Rich. by Macgilliv. p. 453. GEN. CHAR. Calyx (fig. 3.) superior, of one sepal (monosepalous), deeply divided into 5 pointed, upright, sometimes rather spreading segments; in some with intermediate, reflexed, tumid lobes; permanent. Corolla of 1 petal (monopetalous), bell-shaped, with 5 broad, spreading, regular lobes, withering; impervious at the base, combined with the calyx, and furnished at the lower part with 5 acute, approaching valves (fig. 2.) (nectaries of Linnæus), which cover the top of the germen. Filaments 5, hair-like, very short, from the point of each valve. Anthers longer than their filaments, strap-shaped, compressed, spreading. Germen inferior, angular. Style thread-shaped, downy, longer than the stamens. Stigma of from 3 to 5 revolute segments or lobes. Capsule roundish, or inversely egg-shaped, angular and ribbed, of 3 or 5 cells, rarely of 2 only, bursting by 3 or 5 torn lateral openings, between the ribs. Seeds numerous, small, attached to a columnar receptacle or placenta. The bell-shaped corolla; from 2 to 5 lobed, revolute stigma; and the roundish or inversely egg-shaped capsule of from 2 to 5 cells, with torn fissures at the base, will distinguish this from other genera with a monopetalous superior corolla in the same class and order. Nine species British. CAMPANULA ROTUNDIFO'LIA. Round-leaved Bell flower. Blue-bell. Heath-bell. Witch's Thimble. SPEC. CHAR. Root-leaves heart or kidney-shaped, crenate, very soon withering. Stem-leaves strap-shaped, entire. Engl. Bot. t. 866.-Curt. Fl. Lond. t. 226.-Johnson's Gerarde, p. 452.Ray's Syn. p. 277, excluding the reference to J. Bauhin.-Huds. Fl. Angl. (2nd ed.) p. 95.-Sm. Fl. Brit. v. i. p. 235. Engl. Fl. v. i. p. 287.-With. (7th ed.) v. ii. p. 301.-Lindl. Syn. p. 136.-Hook. Brit. Fl. p. 100.-Lightf. Fl. Scot. v. i. p. 141.-Sibth. Fl. Oxon. p. 80.-Abbot's Fl. Bedf. p. 48.Purt. Midl. Fl. v. i. p. 118.-Relh. Fl. Cantab. (3rd ed.) p. 89.-Hook. Fl. Scot. p. 74.-Grev. Fl. Edin. p. 50.-Fl. Devon. pp. 37 & 154.--Johnson's Fl. of Berwick, v. i. p. 58.-Walk. Fl. of Oxf. p. 56.-Campánula heterophylla, Gray's Nat. Arr. v. ii. p. 408. LOCALITIES.-On heaths, walls, road-sides, hedge-banks, and barren pastures; mostly on a dry soil. Common. Perennial.-Flowers from June to September. Root white, thickish, creeping, fibrous, sweetish. Stems several, from 6 inches to a foot or more high, upright, slender, round, smooth, Fig. 1. Five Stamens, and Pistil.-Fig. 2. A Stamen.-Fig. 3. Calyx and Pistil.-Fig. 4. Capsule.--Fig. 5. Transverse Section of ditto.-Fig. 6. The Pores or Openings at the base of the Capsule.-Fig. 7. Root-leaves.-Fig. 8. Lower part of the Stem. From Campana, Lat. a little bell; from the shape of the corolla. + See Anchusa sempervirens, p. 48. note t. very slightly, if at all branched. Root-leaves (fig. 7.) numerous, heart or kidney-shaped, bluntly toothed, or notched; on long, narrow, strap-shaped foot-stalks. Stem-leaves (fig. 8.), lower ones spear-shaped, and slightly toothed; upper ones long, strap-shaped, pointed, entire, and very narrow, tapering at the base into short foot-stalks. Flowers in a loose drooping panicle; blue, sometimes white, on long, slender, tremulous stalks, with an awl-shaped bractea (floral-leaf) to each. Segments of the Calyx (fig. 3.) strap-awl-shaped, entire, spreading. Corolla thrice as long as the calyx, twisted in decay. Capsule (figs. 4 & 5.) 3-celled. It is observed by Dr. HOOKER that the root-leaves soon wither, and thus this part of the specific character is often wanting ‡. A very dwarf variety of this species is sometimes met with on mountainous rocks and in barren ground; it was observed in Scotland by Mr. LIGHTFOOT, previous to 1777, on the hill of Moncrief, near Perth, only about 2 inches high, and bearing but one flower. This was originally taken for Campanula uniflora of LINNÆUS, a very different plant, by Mr. HUDSON.-Mr. W. G. PERRY has found the same variety in a stone-quarry in the Pigwells, at Warwick. Campánula púmila, of Curtis's Botanical Magazine, t. 512, both the blue and the white flowered kinds of which are now common in our Gardens, was considered by LINNÆUS as a variety of C. rotundifólia; this, however, has never been seen wild in Britain, and is doubtless a very distinct species, characterized, as Sir J. E. SMITH observes, by the numerous serrated, inversely egg-shaped or spearshaped stem-leaves, to say nothing of its smaller size, and brighter green hue. It is Campanula pusilla of JACQUIN'S Collectanea, v. ii. p. 79; and C. cæspitósa of VILLARS §, and of SCOPOLI ||. It appears to have been the opinion of Dr. WITHERING, and many other Botanists, that Scilla nutans was the Blue-bell of Scotland; but Dr. JOHNSON, the author of an excellent and interesting "Flora of Berwick-upon-Tweed,' has proved, I think beyond a doubt, that Campanula rotundifólia is the true Blue-bell of that country. "I have," says this distinguished Botanist, spent nearly the whole of the days of my life in the extreme north of England, and in the south of Scotland, and until science had made known to me another and a less interesting nomenclature, I knew the Campanula only as the Bluebell of my native land; and a subsequent enquiry has satisfied me that I am correct. These heart-stirring and endearing names, I regret to add, are fast lapsing to oblivion, and, unless the local florist will commemorate them in his pages, our children will read our pastoral poets without knowledge of the objects described." Loudon's Mag. of Nat. Hist. v. iii. p. 461. LINNEUS informs us that cows, goats, sheep, and horses eat this plant, but that swine refuse it, and that a green pigment is obtained from the flowers. Uredo Campanula of PERSOON'S Synopsis Fungorum, p. 217, and GREVILLE'S Flora Edinensis, p. 440, is not uncommon on the inferior surface of the leaves of this and other species of Campanula about Oxford, in Summer and Autumn. It is a small parasitical fungus of a bright yellow colour when in a recent state, but soon after drying it becomes nearly white. Histoire des Plantes de Dauphiné, vol. ii. p. 500. |