126 FAMILIAR GAIiDEX I'LOIVERS. 



The liroad bell-Howcr is vaiioiisl}^ catalogued as ('um- 

 jxiiuila f/rainlijhjra and FUilj/coiloii ijraiKliJIoniin ; it has 

 also been classed as a Walilenhergia. Being a native of 

 Siberia and Chinese Tartaiy, it will^ as a matter of course, 

 be regarded as a hardj^ plant ; and it is a hardy plants and 

 yet rather troublesome at times by its peculiar sensibilities. 

 It has fleshy rootSj which are very brittle. When growing 

 freely, it rises twenty to thirty inches, the leaves rather 

 long, the flowers in a pi-olooged cluster, large, cup-shaped, 

 of a deep blue colour, and with a shining satin}^ surface, 

 that renders them at once distinct and attractive. We 

 have occasionally, when our plants were extra strong, found 

 the flowers to measure three inches across, Ijut two inches 

 is the average in the case of plants growing under common- 

 place conditions. In character and colour this is certainly 

 one of the finest of the campanulas, and the lover of hardy 

 plants should give no rest to the soles of his feet or the 

 palms of his hands until he has mastered every detail of its 

 cultivation. 



" Every detail " may suggest that an elaborate code of 

 management is to follow. The management is, however, 

 simple enough. This plant requires a deep sandy soil and 

 a sheltered situation. As remarked above, it is hardy, but 

 jieculiar. It is, in fact, hardv in precisely the same degree 

 as the lovely JJieli/irn xpeclahiliK, which is a proper com- 

 panion plant to this campanula. Give them both a deep 

 sandy soil, rather moist, but effectually sheltered, and you 

 have done enough: the plants will thrive. But if the 

 bleak winds of March can chafe and tear such plants as 

 these, they are but too likely to be damaged for the season. 

 When making their new gro«-th in spring they are a 

 little tender, suggesting to us that, although Nature has 



