From Blue to Purple 



ing cattle. Occasionally even the upper leaf surfaces ■ are dotted 

 over with prickles enough to tear a tender tongue. This is a 

 curious feature, for prickles usually grov^^ out of veins. In the 

 receptacle formed where the bases of the upper leaves grow to- 

 gether, rain and dew are found collected — a certain cure for warts, 

 country people say. Venus' Cup, Bath, or Basin, and Water 

 Thistle, are a few of the teazel's folk names earned by its curious 

 little tank. In it many small insects are drowned, and these are 

 supposed to contribute nourishment to the plant; for Mr. Francis 

 Darwin has noted that protoplasmic filaments reach out into the 

 liquid. 



Owing to the stiff spines which radiate from the flower clus- 

 ter, the bumblebees, which principally fertilize it, can reach the 

 florets only with their heads, and not pollenize them by merely 

 crawling over them as in the true compositae. But by first matur- 

 ing its anthers, then when they have shed their pollen, elevating 

 its stigmas, the teazel prevents self-fertilization. 



Harebell or Hairbell; Blue Bells of Scotland; 

 Lady's Thimble 



{Campanula rotundifoUa) Bellflower family 



Flowers — Bright blue or violet blue, bell-shaped, yi in. long or 

 over, drooping from hair-like stalks. Calyx of 5-pointed, 

 narrow, spreading lobes ; 5 slender stamens alternate with 

 lobes of corolla, and borne on summit of calyx tube, which is 

 adherent to ovary ; i pistil with 3 stigmas in maturity only. 

 Stem : Very slender, 6 in. to ^ ft. high, often several from 

 same root ; simple or branching. Leaves : Lower ones 

 nearly round, usually withered and gone by flowering sea- 

 son; stem leaves narrow, pointed, seated on stem. Fruit: An 

 egg-shaped, pendent, 3-celIed capsule with short openings near 

 base; seeds very numerous, tiny. 



Preferred Habitat — Moist rocks, uplands. 



Flowering Season — June — September. 



Distribution — Arctic regions of Europe, Asia, and America; south- 

 ward on this continent, through Canada to New Jersey and 

 Pennsylvania; westward to Nebraska, to Arizona in the 

 Rockies, and to California in the Sierra Nevadas. 



The inaccessible crevice of a precipice, moist rocks sprayed 

 with the dashing waters of a lake or some tumbling mountain 

 stream, wind-swept upland meadows, and shady places by the 

 roadside may hold bright bunches of these hardy bells, swaying 

 with exquisite grace on tremulous, hair-like stems that are fitted 

 to withstand the fiercest mountain blasts, however frail they appear. 



64 



