WILD FLOWERS BLUE AND PURPLE 
in tropical America, and who died in 1733. There 
are about twenty-five species of this genus in North 
America. 
VENUS’S LOOKING-GLASS. CLASPING 
BELLFLOWER 
Specularia perfoliata. Bellflower F amily. 
For a possessor of such a fanciful semi-classic name 
as Venus’s Looking-glass one would naturally expect 
to find a more elaborate and dazzling representative 
than this rather lowly and demure flower. The some- 
what weak, slender, annual, wandlike stalk is very 
leafy, and often leans or reclines against surrounding 
growths for its support. It is angled and slightly 
hairy, and branches from near the base. The small 
leaves are almost an exact heart shape, with scalloped 
margins, and they clasp the stalk alternatingly. They 
are prettily folded, and set out from the stalk like tiny 
basins on a miniature fountain. The corolla of the 
blue, violet or purplish wheel-like flower has five 
spreading divisions. There are five stamens and a 
three-tipped pistil. The long, green calyx has five, 
stiff, pointed parts. The flowers, which are usually 
solitary, or sometimes in twos or threes, at the top of 
the stalk, are set in the axils of the enfolding leaf, and 
only a few open at a time. The small, lower buds, 
which are first to appear, ripen their seeds without 
opening at all. Such buds are called cleis-to-gamic. 
This Bellflower is found commonly from May to Seps 
tember, in dry, open woodland borders, and grassy 
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