a light mulching in the winter, and will then go on increasing Campanulas 

 from year to year, perhaps overrunning the border and becom- as Wild 

 ing rather a nuisance. Garden 



As a race Campanulas may be said to be one of the best pl an f s 

 of all Wild Garden flowers, looking at home at once. This 

 is partly due to the natural grace and beauty of the well-shaped 

 flowers, generally hanging modestly down but sometimes open- 

 ing wide to the sun, and partly to the number of wild kinds 

 which are commonly known such as our own Harebells, the 

 pale mauve barbata of Alpine pastures, and C. medium our so- 

 called Canterbury Bell, growing on sunny Italian slopes, and 

 handsome even before gardeners took it in hand and increased 

 its size and scope of colour. The white, mauve, and purple 

 tones of Campanulas blend with the green of woodside or field 

 and never look spotty, and the diversity in their heights, rang- 

 ing from an inch or two up to seven feet, enables one to use 

 them in a variety of positions. The majority of them enjoy 

 shade, and repay the gift of it by growing taller and lasting for 

 an increased period in bloom ; others, particularly some of the 

 dwarf varieties, may be grown in the sunniest of spots in the 

 rock garden, or along the edges of stone paths, where they fit 

 themselves into chinks in a delightful way. The genus is a 

 very large one, and nearly all the species are worth growing 

 my ambition is to have a collection of them, devoting one bit 

 of the wild garden entirely to their growth, and there is no 

 doubt that such a plan would be well worth carrying out. 

 There are dozens of fascinating kinds very little known, which 

 it would be most interesting to try, and most of them are hardy. 

 In these notes I can only attempt to mention a few of those 

 more commonly grown and the most effective. 



2 A 185 



