CAMPANULAGEiC-BELLFLOWER FAMILY 



Herbs with milky juice, alternate leaves, and scattered flowers. 

 The calyx grows fast to the ovary; the corolla is usually a bell, 

 five-lobed; lobes valvate in the bud. Stamens are five, usually 

 free from the corolla. Style one, often hairy toward the summit; 

 stigmas two or more. Fruit a many-seeded capsule. Flowers 

 generally blue and showy. Typical garden Campanulas are Can- 

 terbury Bell, Narrow-leaved Bellflower, Rampion-like Bellflower, 

 Harebell, and Platycodon. 



CANTERBURY BELLS 



Campanula medium. 



Campanula, little bell, from the shape of the flower. 



One of the most important of the Campanulas; biennial; long in 

 cultivation. ' 



Stem. — Erect, hairy, branching, one to four feet high. 



Leaves. — Coarse, sessile, ovate-lanceolate, crenate-dentate. 



Flowers. — Large bells, single or double, in leafy racemes, blue, violet, 

 white, rose, or pink. 



Calyx. — Five-lobed, with reflexed, leafy appendages. 



Corolla. — Large, bell-shaped, inflated, border five-lobed. 



Stamens. — Five, borne on the summit of the calyx tube; filaments 

 curved. 



Ovary. — Five-celled; style one; stigmas five. 



Capsule. — Many-seeded. 



Canterbury Bells come into bloom as the peonies are passing, 

 and a well-grown plantation is extremely beautiful. Although the 

 early garden forms were violet-blue and white, the color range now 



437 



