120 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



301. Allium iirsrnum, L. Scape triangular at the base, leaves 

 radical, flat, lanceolate, sheathed at the base, petiolate, flowers white, 

 in a flat-topped umbel. 



Bluebell (Scilla non-scripta, Hoffm. and Link.) 



The Bluebell is apparently quite a recent plant found to-day in the 

 N. Temperate Zone in West Europe, south of Belgium to Italy. It is 

 common to every part of Great Britain from Caithness southwards to 

 the south coast, growing at 1500 ft. in the Lake District, Ireland, and 

 the Channel Islands. 



Spring is especially associated with bluebells in the woods. It is 

 a typical woodland species, carpeting the whole of the ground beneath 

 the trees. It persists in the hedgerows, and sometimes the open fields 

 or glades between two woods in wooded districts. 



The Bluebell has no true stem, but the leaves are radical leaves 

 twice as long as the leaf-stalk, broad, keeled, hollow above, smooth 

 and shining, sheathing at the base, and ascending, but at length falling 

 backwards with their own weight. 



The flowers are deep-blue, borne on solitary flowering stems. The 

 bracts or leaflike organs are lance-shaped, nearly erect, two below each 

 flower. The corolla is nearly cylindrical. The raceme of flowers is 

 drooping. The corolla is campanulate or bell-shaped. The stamens 

 are united to the perianth halfway up. The scape exceeds the leaves. 

 The sepals are turned back. 



The Bluebell is i ft. high. The flowers are in bloom between 

 March and June. It is perennial, and propagated by offsets. It is 

 common in gardens and shrubberies. 



The flowers are sweet-smelling, conspicuous, drooping, bell-shapecl, 

 in a raceme, with flowers turned to one side. There is no nectary, 

 but the honey is free or half -concealed by the glands in the par- 

 titions of the ovary. The lip of the bell is curved backwards. 

 There are 6 stamens, the three longer as long as the corolla, and 

 affixed to the corolla below, free above, and awl-shaped, the anther- 

 stalks being flattened. The anthers are erect, yellow. The style is 

 threadlike and the stigma is small, the style blue at the end, and the 

 stigma finely hairy. There are some marks on the petals like Ai, Ai, 

 which may serve as pathfinders. Insects visiting the flower, which is 

 abundantly fertile, touch the stigma first. 



The fruit is a capsule, splitting open, and releasing the seeds when 



