WILD FLOWERS BLUE AND PURPLE 



in tropical America, and who died in 1733. There 

 are about twenty-five species of this genus in North 

 America. 



VENUS'S LOOKING-GLASS. CLASPING 

 BELLFLOWER 



Specularia perfoliata. Bellflower Family. 



For a possessor of such a fanciful semi-classic name 

 as Venus' s Looking-glass one would naturally expect 

 to find a more elaborate and dazzling representative 

 than this rather lowly and demure flower. The some- 

 what weak, slender, annual, wandlike stalk is very 

 leafy, and often leans or reclines against surrounding 

 growths for its support. It is angled and slightly 

 hairy, and branches from near the base. The small 

 leaves are almost an exact heart shape, with scalloped 

 margins, and they clasp the stalk alternatingly. They 

 are prettily folded, and set out from the stalk like tiny 

 basins on a miniature fountain. The corolla of the 

 blue, violet or purplish wheel-like flower has five 

 spreading divisions. There are five stamens and a 

 three-tipped pistil. The long, green calyx has five, 

 stiff, pointed parts. The flowers, which are usually 

 solitary, or sometimes in twos or threes, at the top of 

 the stalk, are set in the axils of the enfolding leaf, and 

 only a few open at a time. The small, lower buds, 

 which are first to appear, ripen their seeds without 

 opening at all. Such buds are called cleis-to-gamic. 

 This Bellflower is found commonly from May to Sep- 

 tember, in dry, open woodland borders, and grassy 



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