CAMPANULA ROTUNDiroLIA. 

 lu. u !•: mc L L ()v Scotland. 



NATURAL oRDIlK, < AM T A XL' I.A( K.V.. 



Campanula ROTi'NniFOLlA, I.innxnis.— Slender, l)ranchinj;j (five to twelve inches high), one 

 to ten-rtowercd ; root-leaves round-heart-shaped or ovate, mostly toothed or crcnatc, long- 

 petioled, early withering away; stem-leaves numerous, linear or narrowly lanceolate, 

 entire, smooth; calyx-lobes awl-shaped, varying from one third to two thirds the length of 

 the bright-blue corolla (which is six to nine lines long). (Cray's ^fnuu^tl of the lintiiny of 

 the AWthcrn United States. Sec also Wood's Class-Book of Botany.) 



HE species to which this cliapter is devoted is one of tlie 

 most interesting plants indigenous to America, — inter- 

 esting, not only on account of its historical and poetical associa- 

 tion, but also on account of the botanical lessons it affords. Its 

 family name, Caiupainila, is quite an old one, and Linnaais, find- 

 ing this name in use when he reconstructed botany, simply 

 adopted it. CaDipaniila is the diminutive of cavipana, an Ital- 

 ian word, and signifies a little bell. The name is quite appro- 

 priate, as the flowers of this family generally have a bell-shajK-d 

 character. The specific name of our species, rotiDidifolia, or 

 round-leaved, seems to us to be also very appropriate, although 

 there is scarcely a modern botanist who does not feel it neces- 

 sary to enter a protest against it. The name refers to the very 

 characteristic root-leaves of the jilant (shown in I'ig. 4), which 

 are seen only in spring and fall, and the protests alluded to arc 

 based on the transient nature of these leaves. Thus Xuttall 

 writes in 18 iS: "It was called Canip.iuula daipictis by PerNoon, 

 and well named dccipiciis by him, for there are very seldom any 

 round leaves to be seen on the i)lant"; and 1 )r. (iray ^a\>. in 

 the work from which we have taken our botanical de>crij)tion : 



