Spectdaria.] campanulaceje. 293 



C. Rapunculus is said to have been found in the Undeidiff T>y Lieut. Ibljotson, 

 late of this island ; and C. palula in a hedge above Shauklin chine, by Albert 

 Hambrough, Esq. ; but I have not yet seen specimens of either. 



The true Canterbury Bells of our gardens (C. medium, L.) I have twice found 

 growing spontaneously on bushy banks at Evading and Bonchurch. 



II. Speculaeia, Heister. Venus's Looking-glass. 



" Corolla rotate. Capsule linear-oblong, prismatic, opening by 

 lateral pores between the calycine segments. Otherwise like 

 Campanula." — Bab. Man. 



1. _S. hybrida, Alph. DC. Corn Bell-floiver. Lesser Venus's 

 Looking-glass. " Stem simple or often branched from the base, 

 leaves oblong- crenate waved, corolla widely spreading shorter 

 than the calyx-segments, capsule triangular." — Br. Fl. p. 249. 

 Campanula, L. E. B. t. 375. 



In sandy or chalky cornfields and other tilla^je-land ; pretty general and often 

 very abundant. Fl. May — August. Fr. July, August. 0. 



E. Med.— Betvfeen Sandown and Shanklin, in fields by the cliff a little beyond 

 the signal-station on Royal heath. Frequent in cornfields throughout the Under- 

 oliff, and in those above Steephill and St. Lawrence. About Cowes, not uncom- 

 mon, also near Ashey. 



W. Med. — Sandy fields at Brixton and Shorwell. Frequent on the (green ?) 

 sand of the South-west, generally in upland fields. Cornfields at Rowledge. 

 Cornfields nearly opposite Yarmouth mill. Cornfield by the Needles hotel. Alum 

 bay. About Thorley, Wellow and Westover. 



Plant pale grayish green, hispid, lactescent. Root anniial, whitish, slender, 

 branched or nearly simple. Stem- solitary or several (when more than one the 

 central stem is upright, the lateral ascending), erect or decumbent at the base, 

 mostly a little flexuose, simple or usually in the larger and older plants more or 

 less alternately branched, often purplish below, hollow in the centre, acutely pen- 

 tagonal and grooved from the winged and twisted angles formed by the decurreut 

 inner corners of the leaves, hispid with short, white, spreading or partly deflexed 

 bristles. Leaves small, from about 6 to 12 lines in length, alternate, pale 

 yellowish green, those at the base of the stem obovate, obovate- oblong or 

 spathulale, soon withering away ; the rest oWong or ovate-oblong, obtuse, sessile 

 and almost amplexioaul, their decurrent bases forming long winged angles on the 

 stem, setose-hispid, strongly undulate and crisped on their mostly deflexed mar- 

 gin, faintly nerved. Flowers solitary, terminal, small, expanding only in clear 

 weather. Sepals resembling the leaves, lanceolate, ovate-lanceolate or even ovate, 

 often unequal, acute, longer than the corolla, with reflexed wavy margins. Co- 

 rolla very .small, rotate, deep violet or purple, whitish externally, a little hispid at 

 the back and summit of the nearly orbicular apiculate segments along the strong 

 dorsal ridge down the centre of each. Stigma clavate, entire, hispid and whitish. 

 Germeri linear, angular, furrowed and hispid, mostly with an adnate leaf or two 

 at its base. Capsules pale whitish or purplish, 3-celled, erect, crowned with the 

 leaf-like calyx, about an inch in length, setose-scabrous, very narrowly elongate- 

 oblong or elliptical, mostly a little envied and twisted, deeply 3-lobed and trisul- 

 cate, the lobes rounded, opening between the cells by 3 \ ah ate pores a little below 

 the apex, hence quite beneath and exterior to the calyx-segmenls, to which they 

 are either opposite or alternate, mostly the latter. Seeds numerous, exactly oval 

 or elliptical, pale brown, exquisitely polished* and pellucid like a .speculum. 



■" Whoever has consideved the form, brilliant lustre .ind transparency of the 

 seeds of this species will find a ready solution of the otherwise obscure reason for 



