WILD CANTERBURY BELL (Phacelia Whitlavia, Gray). 

 Flowers blue-purple, an inch long or more, bell-shaped with 

 roundish, spreading lobes, and long-exserted stamens, more or 

 less pendulous in loose racemes. Leaves ovate, coarsely 

 toothed, hairy. A loosely branching annual, somewhat vis- 

 cid, and with a reddish stem about a foot high, blooming from 

 March till early summer on dry hills, and in partially shaded 

 foothill canons up to about 3,000 feet, in Southern California. 



This showy species is another California wild flower that 

 has long been cultivated in gardens as an ornamental annual, 

 and is sometimes known as California Bluebell, and California 

 Bell-flower. The specific part of the botanical name is a sur- 

 vival of the plant's original christening, which was Whitlavia 

 grandiflora, Harvey. It was introduced into Europe more 

 than sixty years ago, and, it is said, has in some places there 

 established itself as a wild flower. Cultivation has developed 

 several varieties among which one is a pure white, and an- 

 other white with a blue centre. The plant is readily propa- 

 gated from seeds. 



171 



