294 CAMPANULACEJE. [Wahlenbergia. 



S. Speculum, the Venus's Looliing-slass of the gaiclens, is by many botanists 

 thought to be merely a variety of P. hybrida with a larger corolla,— an opinion 

 which seems to receive confirmation from the fact of the seed of the former, when 

 sown, being said to produce both Itinds. 



8. Speculum is persistent in sotne chalky cornfields in the Undercliff, where it 

 has been purposely disseminated. It is truly indigenous to most parts of Europe 

 as high as 63" or 54". 



III. Wahlenbergia, Schrader. Wahlenbergia. 



" Capsule half-superior, 3-celled, opening by 3 — 5 valves within 

 the calycine segments. Otherwise like Campanula." — Bah. Man. 



1. W. hecleracea, Kchb. Ivy-leaved Wahlenbergia. " Stem 

 weak filiform, leaves all stalked cordate angulate- dentate, gla- 

 brous." — Br. Fl. p. 249. Campanula, L. E. B. t. 73. 



In damp turfy or heathy pastures, on sphagnous bog, moist hanks, and bare 

 humid spots on commons, &c. ; rare ? Fl. July, August. If. 



E. Med.— On moory ground not above 400 yards about W. from Rookley farm, 

 in great plenty, as also on other parts of the same pasture-field, abundantly. On 

 Bleak down in various places, especially on a boggy tract along the northern 

 declivity above the road leading to Godshill, in some abundance ; also at the edge 

 of Lashmere pond, at the foot of the down, first found there by Dr. Martin, 1841. 

 " In a marshy place called the Wilderness (or Appleford Wilderness), to the right 

 of Bleak down, on the Niton road from Newport," Miss Evelegli. From this lady 

 I had the first notice of the species as growing in the Isle of Wight. 



A delicate, mostly pale green, very smooth herb, with interlacing, filiform, 

 branched stems. Rhizoma long, slender, creeping, with small bundles of pale 

 thready fibres. Stem filiform, angular, somewhat zigzag, branched alternately, 

 various in length (usually but a few inches), when growing in open situations 

 quite prostrate and rooting, somewhat erect when creeping amongst and supported 

 by other herbage. Leaves of a pale, lender, rarely dark green, a little shining and 

 succulent, alternate, the lower ones on very long petioles which are flattened above, 

 angulato-cordate or roundish and sometimes nearly entire ; upper leaves much 

 like those of Ivy in miniature, acutely 5-lobed and angular, the angles tipped with 

 a small, pale, triangular jioint. Peduncles solitary, opposite and terminal, mostly 

 with a leaf or two on their lower part or just above their insertion, long, slender, 

 single-flowered. Calyx scarcely ^yh. the length of the corolla, its segments erect, 

 linear-lanceolate, acute and distant, quite free (not adnate with the ovary). Co- 

 rolla dilute purplish blue, with deeper-coloured ribs, about \xA of an inch long, 

 snbcylindrical, cleft about ^rd of its length into 5 roundish ovate spreading seg- 

 ments, quickly fading after being gathered. Stamens i\iserted opposite to the 

 calyx-segments ; filaments enlarged downwards, and rough below with stiff hairs. 

 Style linear, white, enlarged at the base, glandnloso-pilose towards the summit, 

 shorter than the corolla ; stigma 3-cleft, glanduloso-pilose, its short segments at 

 length reflexed. 



the popular name bestowed on another and nearly allied species of Specularia, 

 that of Venus's Looking-glass, so common in gardens, and by some supposed to 

 be a variety of the present, though I think most erroneously. Our EngHsh plant 

 is of far rarer occurrence on the Continent than S. Speculum, and is confined 

 exclusively to the southern parts of Europe, as Italy, the S. of France, he. ; 

 whereas, though not yet detected in Britain, S. Speculum is spread over the whole 

 of central Europe, as Germany, Holland, Belgium, !<ic. 



