ON HEATH, DOWN AND MOOR 



269 



Roundleaved Bell-flower or Harebell {Campanula rotundifolia), which 

 displays its gracefully drooping bells from July to September. It 

 has a slender, smooth, ei-ect or ascending stem, from six to twenty 

 inches high, which is usually branched. Its popular and scientific 

 names both appear to be inappropriate if we examine the plant 

 during its flowering season, for the only leaves then usually observ- 

 able are the very narrow ones, generally quite entire, attached to 

 the stem ; earlier in 

 the year, however, it 

 has a few round or 

 heart-shaped leaves, 

 with long stalks, close 

 to the base of the 

 stem ; but these 

 commonly die about 

 the time that the 

 flowers commence to 

 appear. The flowers 

 are sometimes solitary, 

 but often form a loose 

 raceme of several bells. 

 The Clustered Bell- 

 flower {Campanula 

 glomerata) is common 

 on the downs of most 

 parts of England, and 

 often very abundant 

 in the South. It has 

 a stiff, hairy, erect, 

 angular, unbranched 

 stem, from tlu'ee to 



eighteen inches high. On some of the dry, chalky downs of the 

 South the plant is often very dwarfed, being scarcely noticeable 

 among the rather closely-cropped grass. The leaves are oblong 

 or lanceolate, with crenate margins, rough and hairy, the lower 

 ones stalked, but the upper sessile and clasping the stem. The 

 flowers are about three-quarters of an inch in diameter, and form 

 a dense cluster among the upper leaves. The corolla is blue, 

 beU-shaped, with five spreading lobes ; and the fruit is a short, 

 broad capsule, surmounted by the teeth of the calyx, and 

 opens, when ripe, by shts near the base. This species flowers 



The harebell. 



