lO CAMPANULA ROTUNDIFOLIA. BLUEBELL OE SCOTLAND. 



" A most inappropriate name, since the round root-leaves are 

 rarely obvious/' The root-leaves of plants, however, usually 

 afford very interesting characters, and never ought to be over- 

 looked, if it is possible to find them. For this reason it seems 

 to be quite proper to refer to them in specific names, as these 

 latter Avill naturally suggest to the student that there is some- 

 thing to be looked for. Nor is the Campanula rotundifolia the 

 only flower named from its root-leaves. In Arabis lyrata it is 

 well understood that the root-leaves only are lyrate or pinnati- 

 fid, and Phytcuma orbiculata is another plant which may be 

 cited in illustration. 



Possibly the rapidity with which the root-leaves disappear 

 depends on the location in which the plants grow. It is quite 

 likely, however, that these leaves often exist when the flower- 

 ing specimens are gathered, and that they are simply over- 

 looked. Our drawing shows how this may happen. The plant 

 increases by creeping, underground stems, and the way in which 

 it develops can be easily understood by studying the figure 

 marked with the numbers 2, 3, and 4 on our plate. At 2, the 

 flowering stem is shown, which was produced by the terminal 

 bud of the previous year's growth of the underground stem. In 

 the spring, this shoot had the appearance of Fig. 4, but as 

 the flowering stem grew up, the root-leaves withered and died. 

 Another growth was then made from the underground stem, 

 the result of which we see in Fig. 3. This stem is barren, and 

 seems to have had no root-leaves, but the leaves on the stem itself 

 are decidedly broader than the linear leaves on the first shoot. 

 The last shoot, finally, represented at 4, appears towards fall, 

 and has root-leaves only. This shoot holds over till next spring, 

 and then the development of the plant, as we have just sketched 

 it, is repeated once more. It is evident from these remarks that 

 the root-leaves can probably be found without much trouble, if 

 only the flowering stem is carefully traced to the underground 

 stem, and this again is followed up to its point of termination. 

 The specimen from which our drawing was made, and which 



