THE GENUS CAMPANULA FROM A GAllDENER*S POINT OF VIEW. 31 
and annuals as C. Medium, alpina, Wanneri, thyrsoidea, sibirica, 
attlca, and Lorcyi may seem unfair in more than one sense; but 
besides the fact that one cannot in a short paper deal quite ex- 
haustively with any one class, those I have named may also well 
be left out for the present, because I wish to speak of Campanulas 
placed under such conditions in a garden as to grow after the 
way of nature — spreading and mingling one with another year 
after year, and so becoming a united and beautiful whole. 
The various species of hardy Campanulas are pre-eminently 
adapted for special positions in the wild or in the rock garden. 
As a suggestion in passing, some are better for being used in 
big groups by woodland paths, others in the copse, and yet 
others never look more beautiful than when springing up from 
the moist ditch bank, or brightening the hedgerows with their 
tall spikes at midsummer. But I wonder if anyone has ever 
tried a garden of Bellflowers — Bellflowers to the exclusion of 
all other herbaceous plants, and with only a backing of trees or 
suitable evergreen shrubs to break up that plainness of surface 
which inevitably comes about for several months of the year in 
all herbaceous borders. I do not see why, with such an enormous 
number of species (and of varied forms) as belong to this genus, 
we should not try a Bellflower garden as well as a Lily garden, 
a Rose garden. Ferneries, or P^eony breaks. It would have 
the merit of novelty and permanency, and its beauty and interest 
would be assured by the intrinsic merit and adaptability of the 
individual species throughout. As a matter of fact, I have tried 
it on a small scale, both in my own and in other people's gardens, 
and, believe me, it is remarkable how the blues and whites, and 
the many shades of purple, mingled with the evergreen shrubs just 
referred to, and, dying back into the deeper shade of a wood or 
plantation, attract and please by their somewhat sombre effect, as 
distinct from the more ordinary garden effects produced by the 
stronger glare and more numerous colours dotted here and there. 
The effects are at once rich and restful to the eye, for it is not 
all colours that mingle well with the purples, more especially 
with the red-purples. 
Let us, for a moment at least, imagine a Campanula garden, 
and in so doing we may usefully find hints and suggestions of a 
practical kind. And before we begin our word- picture let us 
reflect on what a Campanula garden essentially implies— namely, 
