183 



Inferior, with 'I or more polyspei mous cells opposite the stamens, or alternate with them j style 

 simple, covered with collecting hairs; stigma naked, simple, or with as many lobes as there 

 are cells. Fruit dry, crowned by the withered calyx and corolla, dehiscing by lateral irregu- 

 lar apertures or by valves at the apex, always loculicidal. Seeds numerous, attached to a pla- 

 centa in the axis ; embryo straight, in the axis of fleshy albumen ; radicle inferior. — Herbaceous 

 plants or wider-shrubs, yielding a white milk. Leaves almost always alternate, simple, or 

 deeply divided, without stipula?. Flowera single, in racemes, spikes, or panicles, or in heads, 

 usually blue or white, very rarely yellow. 



Affinities. While this work was going through the press, an excellent 

 Monograph of the present order reached me from M. Alphonse Decandolle. I 

 gladly avail myself of the valuable remarks of this skilful botanist in explain- 

 ing the affinities of Campanulacese. He considers that they differ from Lobe- 

 liacese chiefly in their regular corolla, their stamens being almost always dis- 

 tinct, their pollen spherical (not oval), their stigmas generally long, and velvety 

 externally, in the abundance of collecting hairs on the style, and finally in their 

 capsules usually opening laterally. " It is not only in the form," he proceeds, 

 "but also in the number of the parts, that the flower of Campanulacese is more 

 regular than that of Lobeliacese. Thus, in several Campanulas the cells of 

 the ovarium are equal in number to the stamens and the divisions of the corolla 

 and calyx, which points out the natural symmetry of the flower. In the Lo- 

 belias abortion is more frequent. In both groups the innermost organs are 

 abortive more frequently than the outermost. Thus, the number of cells is 

 often smaller (never greater) than that of the stamens ; the number of stamens 

 is sometimes smaller (but never larger) than that of the lobes of the corolla ; 

 and the same is true of the lobes of the corolla with respect to the calyx.- 

 Finally, LobeliaceBe have sometimes a corolla of a fine bright led, a colour un- 

 known among Campanulas ; nine-tenths of the species of the latter have blue 

 flowers ; and those in which the colour varies, and into which a little red enters 

 (as Canarina), are far from having the brilliancy of Lobelia cardinalis for in- 

 stance. After Lobeliacese, the natural groups with which Campanulacese 

 have the most relation are, no doubt, Goodenovise and Stylidiese, which formed 

 part of the Campanulacese of M. de Jussieu. The regular corolla of Cam- 

 panulacea? distinguishes them, at first sight, from both those groups, as well as 

 from Lobeliacere. Besides, Campanulas have not the fringed indusium which 

 terminates the style of Goodenovise, and surrounds their stigma. Although 

 this organization approaches that of Lobeliacese, and so Campanulacese, it is 

 not less true that it affords an important mark of distinction, and that it is con- 

 nected with essential differences in the mode of fecundation. Mr. Brown has 

 also remarked, that the corolla of Goodenovise is sometimes polypetalous, which 

 it never is in Campanulaceae or Lobeliaeeee ; that the sestivation of their corolla 

 is duplicate, not valvate ; that its principal veins are lateral, or alternate with 

 the lobes, as in Compositse ; that in the species of Goodenovise with dehiscent 

 fruit, the dehiscence is usually septicidal, while in the two other groups it is 

 always loculicidal ; finally, that Goodenovise have not the milky juice that 

 characterizes Campanulacese and Lobeliacae." Notwithstanding their poly- 

 spermous fruit and different inflorescence, these approach very closely to Com- 

 posites ; their milky juice is the same as that of Cichoracese ; their species 

 have, in many cases, the flowers crowded in heads ; their stigma is similar to 

 that of many Compositse ; they have the same collecting hairs on the style, in 

 both cases intended to clear out the pollen from the cells of the anthers ; and, 

 finally, their habit is very like. 



Geography. Chiefly natives of the north of Asia, Europe, and North 

 America, and scarcely known in the hot regions of the world. In the mea- 

 dows, fields, and forests of the countries they inhabit, they constitute the most 

 striking ornament. Some curious species are found in the Canaries, St. Helena, 

 and Juan Fernandez. M. Alphonse Decandolle remarks, that " it is within. 



