CAMPANULA. 
humus or in ordinary poor yellow loam among the blocks of mountain 
limestone on the Styrian Alps, its fine thready rootlets run about 
along the edges of the stones, outlining their rims with emerald, or 
expanding into broad masses of bright-green glossy leaves, oval- 
pointed and toothed, from which come up those daintiest of stems, 
each hanging out one sheeny bell of violet satin. In old days it was the 
tradition that C. pulla hated lime, and all sorts of precautions were 
taken to avoid it, with the result that the victim was usually a mimp. 
Now, however, we have realized the truth at last—that no good limy 
loam, especially if clammy or rather moist, can ever come amiss 
to the essentially calcareous C. pulla; and it is rapidly becom- 
ing a weed accordingly, either on the banks of the rock-work, or 
(most especially) in the moraine-mixture, where it is neither to 
hold nor to bind. In nature there occurs here and there a strange 
form suggesting a hybrid of C. pullax C. rhomboidalis—a leafy thing 
intermediate in height, but rather resembling a specially tall and stout 
C. pulla, with flowers which, instead of being dark purple, as one 
would have expected, are of a delicate whitish violet, large and satiny 
as in C. pulla itself. Like C. pulla, this is of the heartiest habit. 
These two, again, are remarkable among the alpine Campanulas, for 
their tolerance of a shaded cool exposure, even if they are also quite 
happy in full sun ; though C. Morettiana has not their appreciation of 
damp soil by any means, this also may sometimes be found on cool 
dank cliffs, though certainly more robust when more fully exposed to 
light and air. 
C. x pulloeides is a garden-hybrid of extreme beauty, a magnified 
version of C. pulla, nearly twice the height, softer, hairier, and with 
flowers of twice the size, much shorter and wider in the bell, but of the 
same dazzling violet, and sheeny texture. It suggests the influence of 
C. turbinata on C. pulla, and is no less hearty of habit in good con- 
ditions. Yet another important garden-plant is the hybrid called 
almost always C. G. F. Wilson, but sometimes C. Balfourii, and still 
more often, in foreign lists, trying to delude one into hope of a new 
species by calling itself C. Wilsonit. It is a remarkably massive 
small treasure, with a remarkable profusion of flowers which are half- 
erect, open, wide bells of violet, paler at the base, the whole develop- 
ment and vigour and hairiness and greyness of it suggesting that here 
the other parent must have been C. turbinata. Of this again there is 
a form called Aurea, because the foliage tends to turn of an unwhole- 
some yellowish green; this should be avoided, as being far more 
weakly than the other, which is among the most vigorous glories of 
high summer in any open place. 
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