THE BELL-FLOWER FAMILY. 22/ 



other plants which are difficult to increase by cuttings. In 

 order to obtain seeds of the Calycanthns or the Chimonanthus , 

 artificial fertilisation is necessary; and advantage should be 

 taken of a fine sunny day for this purpose. It is curious to 

 notice that the flowers of this plant, like those of Orchids and 

 other plants requiring insect agency to insure fertilisation, are 

 of a wax-like consistence, and endure for a long time in a fresh 

 state. 



THE BELL-FLOWER FAMILY (CampanulacecB). 



A large family of herbaceous plants or low shrubs, often 

 characterised by a milky juice. They are chiefly known in 

 temperate parts of the world, especially North Asia, Europe, 

 and North America. The principal genera are Jasione, 

 Canarina, Platycodon, Wahlenbergia, Roellia, Michauxia, 

 Campanula, Specularia, Trachelium, Adenophora, and one or 

 two others. One of the curious points about Bellworts is the 

 style, which is club-shaped, and, like those of Composites 

 and Lobeliads, clothed with stiff, sub-erect hairs, the object of 

 which is, doubtless, to brush out the pollen from the anthers. 

 Lindley (see ' Veg. King.,' p. 690) observes that Adolphe Brong- 

 niart has studied these hairs ; and this acute observer found 

 that they were retractile, like the tentacula of snails or the hairs 

 of some annelides, and not deciduous, as had previously been 

 supposed. " It appears," says Lindley, " that at the time of the 

 expansion of the flower, the hairs which had previously projected 

 and swept out the pollen from the anthers are drawn back into 

 certain cavities lying at their base, the upper half sheathing 

 itself into the lower half as it is by degrees withdrawn " 

 (see 'Ann. des. Sc. Nat.' (2 ser.), 12, 244; and 'Ann. Nat. 

 Hist.,' viii. p. 86). This is another of the numerous con- 

 trivances designed to facilitate occasional cross - fertilisation ; 

 and whenever these natural means of securing cross-fertilisa- 

 tion are observed, the hybridiser is pretty certain to meet with 

 success. 



Campanula Houttei is one of the best of all hybrid Cam- 

 panulas, but I cannot discover its parentage. C. Hendersoni 

 is said to be the result of a cross between C. turbinata and 

 C. alliarifolia. 



C. Smithii is doubtless a natural hybrid, it having originated 

 as a chance seedling in a frame where C. fragilis and C. pumila 

 alba had been grown (see ' Florist,' 1875, p. 209, for coloured 

 figure, &c.) Numerous fine seminal single and semi-double 

 forms of C. (Platycodoti) grandiflora have been raised -in 



