THE BEE ORCHIS. 78 



nalis). The rosette of leaves from the root does not appear 

 until after the flowers. 



Hairbell or Blue-bell (Campanula rotundifolia). 



This is the true Blue-bell of Scotland. As we have indicated 

 (page 14), the Blue-bell of the Southron is the Wild Hyacinth. 

 Scotsmen are very sensitive upon the point of the Hyacinth 

 having so dear a name bestowed upon it, when it has already a 

 sufficiently good and classical one, and there are few, if any, 

 more certain ways of rousing a Scot than by exhibiting Scilla as 

 the true Blue-bell, or by describing Campanula as the Hair- 

 bell. Others have found the plant a fruitful source of con- 

 troversy on a philological point should it be spelled Hairbell 

 or Harebell? does its name refer to the slender hair-like 

 stems, or to its habit of growing where hares delight to revel? 

 As against Hairbell, which is descriptive of the plant, Harebell 

 has no chance of retention among botanists, whatever philo- 

 logists may say. 



There are six species of Campanula included in the British 

 flora, of which two are rare, and one of these is probably only 

 an escape from cultivation. The characteristic of them all is a 

 beautiful bell-shaped corolla with five lobes, five stamens, and 

 the style with three to five stigmas. They are mostly perennial, 

 and the flowers most frequently blue. C. rotundifolia has a 

 creeping rootstock, and several slender-angled stems. The 

 first formed leaves, near the ground, are more or less rotund in 

 shape, and stalked, but as they occur higher up the stem they 

 are more and more linear. The flowers are nodding or droop- 

 ing, and swayed by the breeze. Heaths and pastures. July to 

 September. 



The Nettle-leaved Bell-flower (C. trachelium) is an erect tall- 

 stemmed (3 feet or more) hairy species, with leaves like nettles, 

 with large purple flowers in a terminal panicle. Woody lanes 

 and copses. August to October. 



