228 OUK KOCK-GARDEN 



improvin' 'em ! " The harebell emphatically stands 

 in need of no such extraneous help. If one dreamt 

 some night that Messrs. Meddle and Muddle, un- 

 limited, the eminent florists, had brought out an 

 improved harebell, the flowers thrice as large as 

 those of the wildling, erect instead of drooping, 

 double and frilled at the edges, of all shades of 

 colour and growing compactly on a two-foot 

 stem, with what a sigh of relief should we wake 

 to find that the Campanula rotundifolia versi- 

 color grandiflora splendens was but a bygone 

 terror of the night, that the delightful little 

 harebell still remained to us, fresh as ever in its 

 delicate beauty. 



The creeping bell-flower, from those same creep- 

 ing qualities that the popular name emphasises, 

 grows with us almost too successfully, and it 

 becomes necessary to presently give it a gentle 

 hint that it is overdoing it. Like most of its genus, 

 its flowers vary sometimes to white. It is one of 

 the larger specimens, reaching a height sometimes 

 of two feet. Many of the campanulas, and especially 

 the Alpines, form more or less dense, low-lying tufts 

 from whence spring in profusion the masses of tender 

 blossom. 



The very delicate little bell-flower that we figure 

 on Plate XXVII., though it grows readily in English 

 rock-gardens, is one of these Alpines, and may be 

 found freely enough on rocks, old walls, and else- 



