286 THE HAKEBELL FAMILY. 



country, " Chili-nettles," the flowers are elegantly star-like, and the 

 petals concave while young, the stamens lying back in them in as 

 many bundles. Some of this genus are green-house twiners. The 

 Loasa tricolor, like the Bartonia, thrives well in the open garden. 



LXXXIX.— THE HAREBELL FAMILY. CampanuUceie. 



Herbaceous plants, with a tendency here and there to become 

 shrubby, the sap often milky. Leaves almost always alternate, simple, 

 undivided, linear, oval, heart-shaped, or roundish, often deeply toothed 

 or angled, and exstipulate. Inflorescence various. Calyx of five 

 united sepals ; corolla regular, of five united petals, more or less bell- 

 shaped (Fig. 157), and inserted upon the upper part of the calyx, the 

 latter adherent to the solitary, two or more-celled ovary. Stamens 

 inserted within the base of the corolla, and not upon its tube, equal in 

 number to the petals, but never twice as many ; the filaments often 

 much dilated at the base ; the anthers long and linear. Style solitary, 

 covered with hairs ; stigmas as many as the cells of the ovary, gene- 

 rally long, linear, cm'ling outwards, and velvety on the external 

 suiface. Fruit a dry capsule, often almost globular, crowned by the 

 withered calyx and corolla, and opening by irregular lateral apertures, 

 or by valves at the upper part. Seeds numerous, minute, often glossy. 

 The flowers are in almost every instance blue, sometimes diluted down 

 to white ; red and yellow are nearly unknown among them. 



Fig. 157. 

 Flower of Campanula. 



Several hundred species are known, natives chiefly of the north of 

 Asia, Europe, and North America, and greatly ornamenting the 

 countries where they grow. The milky juice is rather acrid, but on 

 the whole, the properties are insignificant. 



Thirteen species grow wild in England, seven of them occurring 

 near Manchester. They are blue-flowered without exception, though 

 varying at times to white. 



