CAMPANULA. 



45 



CAMPANULA. 



house should be between fifty and 

 sixty degrees during the growing sea- 

 son ; but when the flower-buds are 

 formed, it may be lower, till the be- 

 ginning of winter, when the buds be- 

 gin to swell. At this season the tem- 

 perature ought not to be suffered to 

 fall below fifty degrees, otherwise the 

 buds will be liable to drop off ; and 

 they will also drop, if watering be 

 neglected. All the species and va- 

 rieties may be propagated by cuttings, 

 taken off at the base of a leaf, or at 

 a joint, as soon as the wood is ri- 

 pened, and planted in sand under a 

 glass ; but the finer varieties are ge- 

 nerally propagated by layering, and 

 inarching, or grafting. The French 

 nurserymen have a very rapid mode 

 of procuring plants by grafting, which 

 they effect under bell-glasses, in 

 strong moist heat, with scions of the 

 young wood, on stocks formed of cut- 

 tings struck the same season. From 

 the Camellia being an evergreen, and 

 its leaves being large, dark-green, and 

 shinintr, it makes a very fine appear- 

 ance against a conservative wall ; and 

 no plant whatever is more magnifi- 

 cent in a conservatory. It must be 

 observed, that all the varieties of C. 

 japonica cannot bear too much heat, 

 and they prefer the shade to broad 

 sunshine ; also that when they are 

 planted against a wall, it is better 

 with a south-east aspect than full 

 south. C. Sasdnqua, and its beauti- 

 ful variety, C. S. maliflora, are the 

 most tender. 



Campa'nula. — Campanulacece. — 

 Beautiful herbaceous plants, natives 

 of Europe and Asia ; the greater part 

 of which are perennials, and are 

 hardy in British gardens. There are 

 also some handsome hardy biennials 

 and annuals, and one or two green- 

 house species. Many of the hardy 

 perennials are dwarf plants, which 

 produce a profusion of flowers, more 

 conspicuous than the leaves ; which 



renders them particularly adapted for 

 rockwork, or growing in pots. Some 

 of the species are so tall, as to require 

 to be planted at the back of borders, 

 or in a single row, along with other 

 tall plants ; such, for example, as 

 C. pyramidalis, the pyramidal bell- 

 flower ; C. Trachelium, the throat- 

 wort, &c. C. pyramidalis, is one 

 of those plants that by repeated re- 

 potting, can be brought to an extraor- 

 dinary size, either as a narrow cone 

 covered with deep blue flowers from 

 the base to the summit, or trained 

 against a frame in the fan manner. 

 By either mode it makes a very 

 splendid object ; and all the art re- 

 quired to produce it, consists in em- 

 ploying rich soil, and in shifting the 

 plant for two years into pots always a 

 little larger and larger,, so as to pre- 

 vent it from coming into flower till 

 it has acquired extraordinary vigour. 

 Some of the prettiest little species for 

 pots, or rockwork, are C. ceritaia, 

 and C. uniflora, which do not exceed 

 three inches in height, and are co- 

 vered during June or July with blue 

 flowers ; C. carpdthica, C. rotundi- 

 folia, C. gargdnica, and upwards 

 of fifty others, which do not exceed 

 six inches in height. All these are 

 very valuable for forming beds in a 

 geometric or regularly-shaped flower- 

 garden, from their dwarf and compact 

 habit of growth, and from the great 

 profusion of their leaves and brilliant- 

 looking flowers. C. medium, the 

 Canterbury Bell, is one of the most 

 ornamental of biennials ; and C. spe- 

 culum, Venus's Looking-glass, is a 

 well-known and pretty annual. This 

 last species has been, however, twice 

 removed from the genus Campanula ; 

 having been called Prismatocdrpus 

 Speculum, by L'Heritier, and Spe- 

 cularia Speculum, by De Candolle. 

 The new Venus's Looking-glass of 

 the nurseries, Campanula Lorei, 

 has, however, been always considered 



