200 CAMPANULACE.^ 



Sir Walter Scott evidently alludes to this flower when, in the ' ' Lady of 

 the Lake," he represents Ellen as gathering it : 



" She stoop'd. and looking round, 

 Pluck 'd a blue Harebell from the ground 

 For me, whose memory scarce conveys 

 An image of more splendid days. 

 This little flower, that loves the lea, 

 May well my simple emblem be ; 

 It drinks Heaven's dew as blithe as rose 

 That in the king's own garden grows." 



This is one of the flowers so common, that, like the daisy, it would, when 

 seen in any foreign land, remind us of early days and early scenes. Mrs. 

 Moodie tells us, that in Canada she was deeply affected by the sight of 

 some of these flowers. " Pressing our way through the bushes," she says, 

 " we came to a small opening in the underwood, so thickly grown over with 

 roses in full blossom, that the air was impregnated with a delightful odour. 

 In the centre of this bed of sweets rose an humble mound that protected the 

 bones of the red man from the ravenous jaws of the wolf and wild cat. It 

 was completely covered with stones, and from among the crevices had sprung 

 a tuft of blue Harebells, wa'vang as wild and free as if they grew among the 

 bonny red heather on the glorious hills of the North, or shook their tiny 

 bells to the breeze on the broom-encircled commons of England." 



Two or three species of Bell-flowers seem to have shared in the general 

 name of Harvest-bells, because they bloomed in autumn. Clare apparently 

 calls this by that name : — - 



" Among the heath-furze still delights to dwell, 

 Quaking, as if with cold, the Harvest-bell." 



The roots of this Campanula may be eaten, and the juice of the flower 

 makes a very good ink, which, when alum is mingled with it, becomes of a 

 rieh green colour. Large clusters of the Harebell are sometimes planted in 

 gardens with very good effect ; and a white variety occurring rarely on our 

 downs, and more frequently on those of France, is also often planted in 

 gardens. The French call this modest white flower La relltjieicse des champs. 



The peculiar structure of this prettily-veined Blue-bell is described in so 

 lucid and interesting a manner by Professor Lindley, in his " Ladies' Botany," 

 that we shall quote it for our readers. One is struck in reading a work like 

 this, at once so scientific and simple in its details, with the contrast afforded 

 between the works of modern men of science and some that were published 

 in the olden time. Sir Hugh Plat wrote his "Garden of Eden" in 1675; 

 and in his Epistle to all " Grentlemen, Ladies, and all others delighting in 

 God's vegetable creatures," takes great praise to himself for his explicitness. 

 Referring to that "gallant and glorious Italian," lo Baptista Porta, he says, 

 " I make no question that if he hadknowne this part of vegetable philosophy, 

 he would have penned the same as a sphinx, and roled it up in the most 

 cloudy and darksome speech that he could have possibly devised." Very 

 different from this "glorious Italian" is our author. "From the base of the 

 corolla of the Harebell," says Dr. Lindley, "and consequently from the 

 summit of the ovary, spring five stamens, whose filaments are broad, firm, 

 and fringed, curving inwards at the base, and bending over the top of the 



