Oct.'], I860.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



221 



five stamens, while Gentians have but four ; but 

 even this is occasionally at fault, as Dr. Withering 

 found C. glomerata with but four stamens. The 

 eye, however, soon gets accustomed to the changing 

 forms of this erratic species. A very pretty speci- 

 men, having pure white blossoms, was brought us 

 the other day from Keep Hill, near High Wycombe ; 

 and both blue and white flowers are occasionally 

 found on the same plant. It appears, from the fol- 

 lowing extract, that the name "Dane's-blood," 

 commonly applied to the Dwarf Elder {Sambucus 

 Ebulus), is also given to this species. " In the little 

 village of Bartlow, in Cambridgeshire, there are 

 four remarkable hills, supposed to have been thrown 

 up by the Danes, as monumental memorials of the 

 dreadful battle fought in 1016, between Canute and 

 Edmund Ironside. The author, some years since, 

 found tbis Clustered Bell-flower largely scattered 

 about these mounds ; and, on asking of some cot- 

 tagers the name of the flower, was told that it was 

 the ' Dane's-blood,' and so called because it sprang 

 up from the blood of the Danes. On further 

 inquiry of people in the neighbourhood, she found it 

 universally known there by this name, which is, 

 doubtless, a very old local one." * 



Our gardens furnish some very pretty foreign 

 species of Campanula, and the handsome Pyramidal 

 Bell-flower (C. pyramidalis) seems to flourish almost 

 as well in cottage windows as in the green-houses at 

 Kew. Besides those British species which have 

 been already described, we may just glance at two 

 allied plants which were until lately included in the 

 same genus. The Ivy-leaved Bell-flower {Wahlen- 

 bergia hederacea) is a fairy-like plant, with delicate 

 creeping stems, pale-green leaves, somewhat resem- 

 bling in shape those of the ivy, and tiny pale blue 

 or pinkish flowers. It grows in great abundance in 

 the bogs of Devon and Cornwall, in company with 

 the lovely pink Bog Pimpernel {Aiiagallis tenella) 

 and yellow Marsh St. John's Wort {Hypericum 

 Modes); but becomes rarer as it gets further north. 

 Its leaves well distinguish it from any other Bell- 

 flower ; and its habitat is likewise dissimilar. The 

 Corn Bell-flower {Specularia hybrida) is very dif- 

 ferent from any of its allies : it is an erect little 

 plant, from 4 to 8 inches high, very rough about 

 the stem, and with narrow sessile leaves. The 

 capsule is very long, and the divisions of the calyx 

 extend far beyond those of the small purple corolla. 

 It grows in cornfields, but is not very common, 

 seeming to prefer a chalky soil ; the small, upturned 

 flowers are frequently white, and are so little bell- 

 like that their affinity is at first by no means appa- 

 rent. The Venus' Looking-glass of gardens {S. 

 speculum) is very nearly allied to this, of which 

 some authors consider it but a variety. Gerarde 

 mentions, having found it in a wild state, and a 



* Pratt's " Flowering Plants of Great Britain." 



specimen was recently brought me from a wheat 

 field near Wycombe, but it has no real claims to 

 nativity. 



In conclusion, we may just remark that we have 

 been quite unsuccessful in retaining the original 

 colour in our dried Bell-flowers ; they seem to have 

 an obstinate predilection for becoming brown or 

 white ; but, perhaps, tbe method suggested for pre- 

 serving that of the Speedwells * may prove success- 

 ful here. B. 



A CHAPTER OF ANECDOTES. 



XT ERE are a few stories about animals and 

 -*-*- their instincts that may, perhaps, please our 

 younger friends. I hope there are a good many young 

 people who read Science Gossip, for its pages 

 cannot help being an inducement to them to observe, 

 and perhaps to record, what they see during holyday 

 rambles. Schoolboys have good opportunities of 

 finding out a great many curious facts relating to 

 both plants and animals if they can pass their holy- 

 day afternoons in the country, and may find much 

 pleasure themselves, and haply be the means of 

 teaching others, if they will only set to work in 

 earnest ; for there is still much to be done, and any 

 one who goes through the world with his eyes open 

 is sure to find out something that even professed 

 naturalists did not know before. I always count it 

 a piece of good fortune that I was sent to school to 

 a kind good man who did all he could to induce his 

 boys to study Natural History, especially on holy- 

 day afternoons, and I am quite sure that the seed 

 then sown has much influenced my aims and pur- 

 suits in later life — to my own happiness, and I hope, 

 now and then, for the pleasure of others for whom 

 I write. 



I must crave pardon for this digression at the 

 very beginning of my chapter, and will only say 

 further, that all these stories are quite true, for any 

 facts that have not actually come under my own ob- 

 servation have been told me by very intimate friends 

 whose word can be relied upon, and who were them- 

 selves eyewitnesses. 



We sometimes read of strange friendships spring- 

 ing up between animals of opposite natures, but I 

 never met with one more incongruous than the fol- 

 lowing, which happened at my own farm. 



There were two pigs in one sty, one of them a 

 young sow, which, after a while, was taken to a se- 

 parate building previously to having a litter of pigs. 

 Soon afterwards it was observed that the remaining 

 pig had found solace for his loneliness in the com- 

 panionship of a young chicken, which had, no doubt, 

 at first accidentally got into the sty, but which never 

 afterwards attempted to leave the pig, never even 



* Science Gossip, ii. 1 64. 



