XXXII. 



THE HAREBELL. 



FEW English flowers are better known than 

 the harebell ; yet I wonder what proportion 

 of all those who love it well in its summer 

 beauty would be able to account for its 

 botanical name of Round-leaved Campanula. 

 " Round-leaved ! " most people would say ; 

 "why, its leaves are slender and narrow 

 and grass-like." And so they are, indeed, 

 in the later state in which you pick in 

 July the graceful pensile blossoms. But 

 the flowering stage of every plant is, after 

 all, but its momentary reproductive period ; 

 it represents, so to speak, the golden prime 

 of the full-grown individual. Before that 

 stage is attained, the plant itself has to 

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