DOWNINGIA 



HAREBELL OBDEB 



PEATIA 655 



LXIII. CAMPANULACEiE— Harebell or Bell Flower Order 



A large natural order containing 53 genera and over 1000 species of herbs, 

 bushes, or shrubs, nearly all of which have milky juice. Leaves without 

 stipules, usually alternate, rarely opposite, entire, toothed or rarely lobed or 

 dissected. Mowers usually hermaphrodite, regular or irregular. Calyx-tube 

 adnate to the ovary, hmb usually 5-cleft. Corolla gamopetalous, tubular or 

 bell-shaped. Stamens 5, or as many as the lobes of the corolla, epigynous or 

 epipetalous. Anthers free or united. Overy inferior or half superior, usually 

 2-5-celled. Stigma bearded or naked. Fruit a capsule or berry, many- 

 seeded. 



Tribe I. LoBELiEiE. — Corolla irregular. 

 Peduncles axillary or at the ends of the shoots. 



Anthers united round the style. 



DOWNINGIA (Clintonia).— A genus 

 with 3 or 4 species of smooth annuals 

 having alternate, entire leaves, and 

 flowers in the axils of the upper leaves. 

 Calyx tube linear, adnate, 5-parted. 

 Corolla, oblique, upper lobes narrow, lower 

 lip broadly 3-cleft. Stamens free from 

 the corolla. Ovary inferior. Stigma 

 shortly 2-lobed. Capsule linear. 



Culture and Propagation. — Down- 

 ingias are charming little annuals suitable 

 for the summer flower garden. Seeds 

 may be sown in the open border in 

 March and AprU in ordinary garden soil 

 and the plants later on thinned out to 

 8 or 9 in. apart. Seeds may also be sown 

 when ripe in cold frames, and the seed- 

 lings if necessary may be potted on and 

 grown for conservatory decoration during 

 the winter and spring. 



D. eleg-ans. — A native of N.W. 

 America, about 6 in. high, with sessile, 

 ovate 3-nerved leaves. Flowers in 

 summer, solitary, blue, with a white 

 streak on the base. 



Culture dc. as above. 



D. pulchella {CKntorvia pulchella). — 

 A pretty Californian annual with small 

 sessile linear lance-shaped leaves, some- 

 times with one or two small teeth at the 

 base. Flowers in summer, bright blue, 

 with a yellow ' eye ' in the centre of a 

 white zone. There are forms known as 

 alba, rubra, and atro-purpurea according 

 to the prevailing colour of the flower. 



Culture Sc. as above. This species is 

 better known in gardens as Clintonia, but 

 as there is another and older genus of that 

 name in the Lily order (see p. 879) it 



cannot be retained without leading to 

 confusion. 



PRATIA. — A genus of slenjder trailing 

 or creeping herbs, rarely ascending or 

 erect, with alternate, broad, toothed 

 leaves, and 1-flowered peduncles in the 

 axils of the leaves. Flowers rather small, 

 dioecious in some species owing to abor- 

 tion. Calyx 5-parted. Corolla irregular. 

 Stamen-tube free from, or very slightly 

 adnate to, the corolla. Ovary inferior, 

 2-ceUed. Fruit an obovoid or roundish 

 berry with numerous small seeds. 



Culture and, Propagation. — Pratias 

 are not very well known garden plants, 

 but the species mentioned below are 

 deserving of a place in the rock garden, 

 where their slender stems may trail over 

 the faces of stones and rocks. They 

 flourish in ordinary good garden soil that 

 is well drained, and they like a warm and 

 sheltered position in unfavourable parts of 

 the kingdom. They may be increased in 

 spring by division of the tufts. Seeds 

 may also be sown in cold frames when 

 ripe, or in gentle heat in early spring, in 

 each case pricking the seedlings out and 

 growing on until about the end of May, 

 when they may transferred to the open 

 border. 



P. angulata [Lobelia littoralis). — A 

 pretty New Zealand trailing, plant, the 

 slender stems of which are furnished with 

 small angular or roundish leaves. The 

 long-stalked white flowers, nearly J hi. 

 long, resembling those of Lobelia in 

 shape, are produced in great profusion 

 during the summer months, and are very 



