CAMPANULA. 87 



screen a common sized fire-place. The plant may stand 

 abroad till the flowers begin to open ; and, being then 

 placed in a room where it is shaded from the sun and rain, 

 the flowers will continue long in beauty. If it be removed 

 into the air at night, where it is not exposed to heavy rains, 

 the flowers will be handsomer, and will last longer. This 

 species is a native of Savoy, and makes a magnificent ap- 

 pearance among the rocks on the coast of Ithaca, where it 

 grows plentifully. Few plants, especially of so hardy a 

 kind, have such an abundance of beautiful flowers, and alto- 

 gether so elegant an appearance as this. It is, however, 

 rather more delicate than those before mentioned ; and when 

 raised from seeds, which is the best mode, requires a hot- 

 bed to bring it forward. It should therefore be procured 

 in a pot, and should be one that has been raised from seed. 

 This species is in every part filled with a kind of milky 

 juice, which issues forth on the plucking of the smallest 

 leaf or flower ; this is, in some degree, common to Cam- 

 panulas in general ; but the pyramidal sort has it in greater 

 abundance than most of them. Most of the Campanulas 

 close their flowers at night. They will grow in common 

 garden earth. 



' There is a beautiful little Campanula, common on heaths 

 and commons all over England, and which is, doubtless, an 

 old friend and favourite with the reader. It is called the 

 Round-leaved Bell-flower, [Campanula rotundifolia] ; the 

 leaves from which it is framed grow near to the root, and 

 as they soon dry away, and fall off, are seldom observed ; 

 but the little blue-bell flower, nodding upon its long and 

 slender stem, is an object of admiration to all who see it. 

 The stem is sometimes branched, but perhaps more fre- 

 quently simple ; when branched, each branch has, like the 

 stem, a single flower at the summit. The flower itself is a 

 miniature likeness of the Pyramidal Campanula. 



