Campanula

“ The seed-bud and pointal Without a doubt the present is not only a new species, but likewise one of the most showy in the extensive genus Campanula; nearly all the individuals of which have charms enough to entitle them to a place in the flower-garden. ”

“ Deficiency of the corolla was observed in Campanula perfoliata and Ruellia clandestina by Linné, who calls such blooms flores mutilati. [480] Drs. Hooker and Thomson relate a similar occurrence in Campanula canescens and C. colorata. Some plants seem as a normal occurrence to produce flowers of different construction, and are hence termed dimorphic, as in many Malpighiaceæ, Violaceæ, Oxalidaceæ, in some of the flowers of which the petals are altogether wanting, while in others the [Pg 404] corolla is developed as usual. ”

“ Between the moraines, near my tent, the soil was perfectly level, and consisted of little lake-beds strewn with gigantic boulders, and covered with hard turf of grass and sedge, and little bushes of dwarf rhododendron and prostrate juniper, as trim as if they had been clipped. Altogether these formed the most picturesque little nooks it was possible to conceive; and they exhibited the withered remains of so many kinds of primrose, gentian, anemone, potentilla, orchis, saxifrage, parnassia, campanula, and pedicularis, that in summer they must be perfect gardens of wild flowers. ”

“ The style is at first short, but it gradually elongates itself, and both it and the stigmas are furnished with tufts of stiff hairs, which, as the style pushes itself through the stamens, brush off the pollen, and retain it till the stigma is in a proper state to receive it. The anthers burst as soon as the corolla opens. The capsules have generally two, three, or five cells, and each cell contains many seeds.
In the genus Campanula, the capsule opens by little valves, which look as though cut with scissors. The juice of the plants is milky, but not poisonous. ”

“ Caps. insera poris lateralibus dehiscens.
Specific Character and Synonyms.
CAMPANULA grandiflora caule subunifloro, foliis sublanceolatis serratis, corolla patente. Jacq. in Litt. Hort. v. 3. t. 2.
CAMPANULA grandiflora foliis ternis oblongis serratis, caule unifloro, flore patulo. Linn. Suppl. p. 140. Syst. Veget. ed. 14. Murr. p. 207. Ait. Kew. v. 1. p. 218.
No249.
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Professor Jacquin is, we believe, the first author who has figured this species of Campanula, which he has done in his Hortus Vindebonensis; Linnæus the Son afterwards inserted it in his Suppl. Pl. ”

“ The corolla is bell-shaped or campanulate; 5 cleft; calyx lobes, awl shaped, persistent on the seed vessel; stamens 5, style 1, stigmas 2; seed vessel several celled and many seeded; in height the plant varies from a few inches to a foot; number of flowers varying from a few to many.
We have but three known species in Canada, Campanula Americana, “a large handsome species being found in Western Canada;” [5] and C. aparinoides. The rough-leaved Bellflower is found in marshes and in thickets where the soil is poor but the atmosphere moist; it is of a climbing or rather clinging habit ”

“ The plant is very abundant in dry rocky and sandy places, in dried up torrent-beds, by the roadside and on the tops of walls. It is found from the lower mountain region up to some 8000 feet, and descends with some of the rivers towards the plains. It is also found in the Jura and parts of the Black Forest.
The Dwarf Bell-flower will be recognised from most of the other species of Campanula which abound in Switzerland by its broad basal leaves, its narrow stem leaves, and its erect seed pod. But, unfortunately, there are three other Swiss species to which this description equally well applies. ”

“ To guard against the hurtful influence of nocturnal dews or drenching rains, most flowers either fold their petals together, or hang down their heads, when the sun does not shine; by which, their internal organs are sheltered. In some which always droop, as the Snowdrops Galanthus and Leucojum, Engl. Bot. t. and 621, the Fritillary, t., the Crown Imperial, various species of Campanula, and others, while the over-shadowing corolla keeps off rain, the air has free access underneath to blow the pollen to the stigma. ”

“ Gray corrected the error,—“must be a new species,” which it then certainly was. Again, there is another Anomolos described at length, which is the same afterwards constituted by Nuttall his genus Microstylis. So Campanula humida (Cutler mss.) is what Pursh designated, long after, C. aparinoides. Again, in another volume (for 1800) , he anticipates Pursh by proposing for our water-shield the name Brasenia ovalifolia; and, in yet another, he is before Bigelow in describing as a new species what the latter, many years later, published as Prunus obovata. ”

“ Common on pastures and heaths, ascending to 800 yards on Cheviot.
2. C. rapunculus Campanula rapunculus, L. Alien.
In a grassy field of the glebe at Norton (John Hogg. F.) .
3. C. latifolia Campanula latifolia, L. Native. Scottish type. Area C, N, D. Range 1, 2.
Frequent by stream-sides and in ditches, ascending in Coquetdale to Rothbury, Teesdale to High Force Woods, Weardale above Wearhead Village, 1150 feet.
4. C. rapunculoides Campanula rapunculoides, L. Alien.
An occasional garden weed, as at Shields and Yarm. Right bank of the Derwent between Swalwell and the Tyne (R. B. Bowman) . ”

“ This graceful little plant may generally be found in profusion on dry and hilly pastures and heaths, though by no means in such localities exclusively, as the roadside hedge-bank is another favourite spot. There are ten species indigenous to England, most of them of great beauty and adaptability to art-requirements: of these we may in particular mention the C. hederacea, the ivy-leaved campanula, a little plant by no means uncommon in moist shady pastures and swampy low-lying ground. The present species is{49} abundant everywhere throughout Europe and Northern Asia. ”

“ Stem and leaves glabrous (or rarely pubescent) (1-6 dm. high; flowers blue) Harebell, Campanula rotundifolia. 2b. Stem and leaves rough with reflexed bristles (marsh plants, with weak slender stems 3-10 dm. long; flowers white or pale-blue) (Marsh Bellflower) — 3. 3a. Corolla 5-8 mm. long Marsh Bellflower, Campanula aparinoides. 3b. Corolla 10-12 mm. long Marsh Bellflower, Campanula uliginosa. 4a. Corolla rotate; flowers in spikes (6-15 dm. high) Bellflower, Campanula americana. 4b. Corolla bell-shape; flowers in one-sided racemes (4-10 dm. high) Bellflower, Campanula rapunculoides. ”

“ The Campanulas are glorious, and [Pg 121] the lilac pyramidal heads of C. spicata are striking “bits of colour” where the grass is sparser. So also are the lovely deep-blue, pea-like masses of Vicia onobrychioides, associating with Rampion, Arnica, and Martagon or Turk’s-cap Lily. Dianthus superbus spreads a lace-like mantle of pink and white over the shadier portions of the fields by the forest’s edge; and D. sylvestris is a glory of flesh-pink upon the hotter slopes by the rocks. Aconitum Napellus, blue Monkshood or Char de Venus, is not hereabouts as on the higher pastures ”

“ P. conical, reticulately wrinkled, atomate, very minutely pubescent, brown or ochre, hygr.; g. narrow, veined at base, rusty; s. tall, rigid, coarsely longitudinally striate above, finely pubescent, paler than p.
siliginea, Fr. P. 1-1.5 cm. globose, then campan. finally exp. unequal, even, greyish, not becoming pale; g. adnate, ochre; s. 4-7 cm. rather wavy, equal, pallid, rather pruinose; sp. 11-13 × 5-7.
campanulata, Mass. Smell strong. P. 1-2 cm. persistently campan. subacute, even, hygr. deep cinnamon, whitish, atomate and rather rugulose when dry; g. adnate, tawny cinnamon; s. 4-5 cm. ”

“ P. campan. obtuse, almost glabrous, hygr. pellucidly striate when moist, ochre then pale; g. adnate, edge whitish; s. filiform, lax, glabrous; sp. 12-16 × 5-8.
With a scurfy veil when young?
PSATHYRA, Fr.
I. Conopilei. Pileus conico-campanulate; gills ascending, adnexed, often free.
elata, Mass. P. 3-5 cm. high, obtusely campan. even, glabrous, dark brown then pale and atomate; g. adnate; s. 9-15 cm. straight, slightly narrowed upwards, white, shining; sp. 18 × 8-9.
conopilea, Fr. P. 2-3 cm. campan. even, glabrous, bay then pale; g. slightly adnexed; s. 8-14 cm. ”

“ All the Campanularians, of which Oceania (Fig. 68) , Clytia (Fig. 73) , and Eucope (Fig. 61) form a part, belong among those little shrub-like communities of animals called Hydroids, [Pg 50] from which most of our Jelly-fishes are developed. They differ in one essential feature from the Tubularians. (Fig. 93.) The whole stem, from summit to base, is enveloped in a horny sheath, extending around both the fertile and sterile individuals of the community, and forming a network at the base of the stem, which serves as a kind of foundation for the whole stock. ”

“ Shell campanulate, with two slight strictures. Length of the three joints = 2 : 6 : 9, breadth = 3 : 8 : 14. Cephalis subspherical, with a conical horn of the same length. Thorax campanulate, {1380}smooth, with regular, circular pores. Abdomen truncate, conical, with sixteen to twenty-four divergent ribs, which are straight or slightly curved, and connected by from four to six transverse, circular rings. The large regular meshes, so produced, form sixteen to twenty-four longitudinal series, and are rounded in the upper, square in the lower transverse rows. ”

“ At one moment we see him in his prime, a perfect specimen for the 'bug-hunter' who is after the larva of Chœrocampa pampinatrix. In ten minutes we look at him again: we find his body shrunken and covered with minute white grubs, all standing on their tails, which are still imbedded in his body; here one barely emerged; here another half enshrouded in a gauzy cocoon; others with their bodies bent [244] into loops weaving the webby gauze about them, while a few hours hence all are concealed, as we see them now, in the completed long, oval, white cocoons which still remain attached to his body. ”

“ The secret for catching the campagnol is as follows:—
Go into any field which is bounded by a brook, and lie down, taking care that the sun faces you; otherwise your shadow will be thrown on the grass, rendering the detection of the animal extremely difficult.
When you have arranged yourself in an easy posture, keep your eyes on the ground, and try to look between the green blades, so as to see the colour of the soil. On a first trial you may probably wait until your patience is exhausted, and yet see nothing. ”

“ Less frequently it has yielded the bones, antlers or tusks of terrestrial quadrupeds. But both the plants [Pg 327] and animals have obviously been drifted from the land, and did not live where their remains have been found. It is worthy of remark that though so many observers have been at work in successive generations among the rocks of the Campagna, no undoubted example of marine mollusk has been recorded from the tuff in the interior of the Campagna. The crowds of shells in the Pliocene strata underneath are there absent. ”

“ The action of camphor dissolved in water is remarkable, for it not only soon induces inflection, but apparently renders the glands extremely sensitive to mechanical irritation; for if they are brushed with a soft brush, after being immersed in the solution for a short time, the tentacles begin to bend in about 2 m. It may, however, be that the brushing, though not a sufficient stimulus by itself, tends to excite movement merely by reinforcing the direct action of the camphor. ”

“ One day, Pomona saw outside her gate a bent and weary-looking old woman. She had on a head-dress that fell across her eyes, and she leaned upon a stick. Pomona, the kindliest of the nymphs, asked her to sit in the shade of one of her trees and rest herself and eat some of her fruit. The old woman came within. "How beautifully your garden is kept!" she said. "I have never been where trees grew so well, or where the fruits looked so bright and so refreshing. Do you live here all alone, my dear?" ”

“ We have already seen how the abandoned winter nest of the campagnol is utilised by the wasp or humble-bee, and we now see that when the blackbird and thrush have abandoned the cherry-stones as useless to them, there is the campagnol waiting for them and ready to carry them off to the store-chamber which it has previously prepared.
A PIKE STRANGLED BY AN EEL.
Beside the winter nest, there is the summer nest, which is primarily intended for the reception and nurture of the young. ”

“ At last on again, till we were winding through the curious long troughs of the Roman Campagna. There [Pg 315] the shepherds minded the sheep: the slender-footed merino sheep. In Sardinia the merinos were very white and glistening, so that one thought of the Scriptural "white as wool." And the black sheep among the flock were very black. But these Campagna were no longer white, but dingy. And though the wildness of the Campagna is a real wildness still, it is a historic wildness, familiar in its way as a fireside is familiar. ”

“ It has a communication with the palate, and when filled with air looks like a spire; when empty it becomes pendulous. His note is loud and clear, like the sound of a bell, and may be heard at the distance of three miles. In the midst of these extensive wilds, generally on the dried top of an aged mora, almost out of gun-reach, you will see the campanero. No sound or song from any of the winged inhabitants of the forest, not even the clearly pronounced "Whip-poor-will" from the goat-sucker, cause such astonishment as the toll of the campanero. ”