GAMOPETAL^ 313 



Water Lobelia, Sheep's Bit Scabious, Ivy-leaved 

 Bellflower, the Spiked Rampions, Bellflowers (of 

 w^hich one, the Nettled-leaved Bellflower, was 

 described in the Introductory Volume), and Venus' 

 Looking-glass. 



There are about a thousand species and nearly 

 sixty genera in this order, which are found chiefly in 

 the N. Temperate Zone, but some are subtropical. 



Most of the Bellflower group are herbaceous 

 perennials. They have a milky juice or latex, bitter 

 and acrid. 



A few only are shrubs or more rarely trees. The 

 leaves are alternate, without stipules. 



The inflorescence may be terminal or not. It is 

 usually racemose, with a terminal flower in the Bell- 

 flower type. There may be a single or more than 

 one flower in the axils of the bracts. The flowers 

 are usually complete, regular or zygomorphic, and 

 epigynous, with the parts of the flower usually in fives. 

 In the Bellflower type the odd sepal is posterior, 

 anterior in the others. 



By a twisting of the axis through a semicircle 

 before the flower opens, the odd sepal is at length 

 posterior. The calyx is gamosepalous, wholly 

 superior, or half-superior, five-cleft and open, per- 

 sistent. The corolla is gamopetalous, regular, 

 except in Lobelia, epigynous, with five lobes, usually 

 persistent, the limb regular, oblique or two-lipped, 

 valvate or induplicate in the bud. There are five 

 stamens, which are epipetalous, or epigynous, and 



