92 FLOWERS OF THE HEATHS AND MOORS 



Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia, L.) 



The Harebell is known to us as a plant of the Northern Temperate 

 and Arctic Zones, found in Arctic Europe, North Africa, N. Asia, 

 N. America. It is found in every part of Great Britain, except the 

 Orkneys, as far north as the Shetlands, and ascends to 3500 ft. in 

 the Highlands. It is native in Ireland. 



The Harebell is the Bluebell of Scotland, and is a typical ericetal 

 plant, indicative of heath or moorland oenerally. Barren, dry upland 

 tracts are made gay with its delicate bluebell-like Hovvers in autumn, 

 and it is one of our commonest hill-side wild flowers, growing side by 

 side with I'urze, Broom, Heaths, Ling, and Heather. 



The leaves are smooth, the radical leaves oblong, kidney-shaped, 

 seen at their best before the plant matures. They are usually coarsely 

 toothed. The stem-leaves are linear-lance-shaped, and entire. 



The flowers are blue or rarely white, bell- shaped, on spreading 

 flower- stalks, drooping, and the flower- stalks may be simple or 

 branched. The arrangement of the flowers is racemose, the corolla 

 regular (or almost), and the caly.x is 5-fid, the calyx segments linear, 

 awl-shaped, and remain with the fruit. The anther-stalks are swollen 

 below, concealing and j^rotecting the honey. The anthers are quite 

 distinct. There may be 2, 3, or 5 styles. 



The plant may be 6-9 in. or i ft. high. The blooming of the 

 Harebell takes place between June and August. The plant is peren- 

 nial, and propagated by division. It is, and ought more generally to 

 be, cultivated. 



When the flower opens, the anthers and upper part of the stalks 

 wither, the lower swell and partly cover the honey. The hairs on the 

 pistil are drawn in, and the honey then lies more or less e.xposed, and 

 is accessible to honey-seeking insects. When the hairs are withdrawn 

 the stigmas open out and are dusted with pollen. If insects do not 

 visit the flower, the stigmas bend over and are dusted with pollen from 

 the anthers. 



The flowers are large, blue, bell-shaped, tubular, with 5 lobes, bent 

 back. The anthers are distinct and not united into a tube, the anther- 

 stalks being expanded at the base to form triangular valves, dilated 

 and broad, which protect the honey. The style is club-shaped, divided 

 into 2 or 3 or 5 thread-like stigmatic lobes crowned with hairs. I he 

 anthers shed pollen on the stigma before the flower is even open, and 

 are close to the pistil. The honey is abundant, and the plant is much 



