BELL-FLOWER TRIBE 205 



to twelve inches high, rough and wiry ; the plant has waved oblong leaves, 

 with a few terminal flowers of dull bluish-lilac, surrounded by the long calyx- 

 segments, and expanding from June to September. It occurs on dry chalky 

 corn-fields, in the middle and south of England, extending as far north as 

 Durham, but occurring chiefly in the eastern counties. This species is, by 

 some writers, included in the genus Specularia, and is very nearly allied to 

 the Venus's Looking-glass of our gardens, which is a Corn Bell-flower of 

 Southern Europe. This last is said formerly to have grown wild in our 

 fields, but was most probably introduced from the other side of the Channel, 

 among the grain. Gerarde says of our Corn Bell-flower, " I found it in a 

 field among the corne, by Greenhithe, as I went from thence unto Dartford, 

 in Kent, and in many other places thereabout, but not elsewhere; from 

 whence I brought of the seedes for my garden, where they came up of them- 

 selves, from yeere to yeere, by falling of the seedes." 



2. Rampion {Phj/teuma). 



1. Round-headed Rampion (P. oi'hieuldre). — Flowers in a round 

 terminal head, with lanceolate bracts ; lower leaves notched, heart-shaped, 

 stalked; upper narrow and sessile; perennial. This is a very singular 

 plant, having a leafy stem, a foot or a foot and a half high, on which, in 

 July, stands a round head of the most rich blue flowers. After these hand- 

 some blossoms have departed, the plant is remarkable for the heads of fruit, 

 which form a perfect oval, and have their calyxes remaining and spreading 

 out in a starry form. This Rampion is rare, growing on chalky soil in the 

 south of England, as the open downs of Kent, Sussex, Surrey, and Wilts. 

 Not a leaf is to be seen in July about its root, for, as in the Harebell, by the 

 time of flowering the foliage has all withered away. At first the petals of 

 this flower are united by their edges as in Campamda, but they afterwards 

 separate. In the next species, however, the petals separate only partially, 

 the tips continuing to be joined together. 



2. Spiked Rampion (P. spicdtum). — Heads of flowers oblong, of fruit 

 long and cylindrical; lower leaves egg-shaped and heart-shaped, somewhat 

 doubly serrate, stalked ; upper leaves slender, lanceolate, and sessile ; bracts 

 slender. This rare species has been found only in Sussex, where it grows 

 in the woods and thickets about Waldron. Its stem is one or two feet high ; 

 each stem bearing, in June and July, a solitary terminal head of cream- 

 coloured flowers. The spike of flowers is from two to four inches long. The 

 root is edible, and was formerly cultivated and eaten, either as a salad, or 

 boiled. It is still a common vegetable in Switzerland; and it is open to 

 question whether its presence in this country is not entirely due to former 

 cultivation. 



3. SiiEEP's-BiT (Jasidne). 



Annual Sheep's-bit, or Scabious (/. montdnn). — Leaves oblong, 

 somewhat blunt, wavy ; flowers stalked ; stem simple or branched, downy ; 

 bracts smooth or hairy ; calyx-segments narrow and bristly ; annual or 

 biennial. The heath and open down are very beautiful at Midsummer, often 

 reminding one of Tennyson's words : — 



