III.] 



CAMPANULA CE^E. 



231 



53. Natural Order, Campanidacece. — The Bell-flower Family. 



Herbs or shrubs, with alternate or opposite exstipulate 

 leaves and milky juice. Ovary two- three- (or more-) celled. 

 Seeds indefinite. 



Type — Wahlenhergia agrestis. 



A common, spreading, annual weed, with alternate simple 

 leaves, and solitary, terminal, regular, bell-shaped, white 

 flowers. 



Lobelia trigyna, an annual herb, with similar habit, and 

 axillary blue flowers on slender peduncles, represents a 

 distinct sub-type, difl"ering in having an irregular corolla and 

 the anthers syngenesious. From Composites, which have 

 also syngenesious anthers, the three-celled ovary and many 

 seeds easily distinguish this sub-type. 



Several ^Qll-^o^txs {Campanula) and Lobelias are favourite 

 garden-plants in temperate countries. Two small-flowered 

 Campanulas of Northern India exhibit the curious pheno- 

 menon of dimorphic flowers. Besides the flower of usual 

 form, there are smaller ones, about the size of coriander- 

 seeds, which never open, but which nevertheless mature 

 abundant seed. The latter must necessarily be self-fertilised, 

 while the flowers of ordinary form are often, if not always, 



