98 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



THE GENUS CAMPANULA. 



By Maurice Prichard, F.R.H.S. 



[Read April 23, 1902.] 



Perhaps no family of hardy plants is more generally admired than the 

 Bell-flowers or Campanulas, presumably on account of the elegance and 

 informality of their growth and wonderful freedom of flowering. 



The greater number of the species are first-rate perennials ; there are 

 a few annuals and biennials and one or two greenhouse species. Very 

 little care, however, is required to have most of them in perfection in the 

 ordinary herbaceous border or rockery. An ordinary light garden loam 

 suits them best perhaps, though many will succeed in stiff loam or in the 

 sandiest peat ; a little shade in the summer will help to keep the flowers 

 in bloom. 



As far as I know none of them are sweet-scented to any extent, but 

 on the other hand they have no unpleasant odour. Several of the species 

 are amongst the most useful of cut flowers, but are of such a character as 

 not to admit of being easily packed up. They vary in height — from 

 the giant pyramidalis, six or seven feet, to the diminutive little Alpine 

 cenisia, two inches; but it should be remembered that climate and soil 

 will often double the height of some of the species. For instance, latifolia 

 macrantJia, about three feet high at Christchurch in Hampshire, will attain 

 a height of six feet in the northern counties. Some of the species grow 

 well on a wall. June and July are the months when Campanulas light 

 up the garden with their beautiful bells, mostly blue, a colour without 

 them always most wanted in borders in summer. 



Propagation is generally made by division of the crown in the spring 

 as well as by seed, and also by cuttings of the choicer varieties in the 

 month of May. In rare instances root cuttings may be resorted to. 



A note before passing to the different species. The small tufted species 

 should never be touched at the root while dormant, as they usually shrink 

 to a very small size, indeed in the winter so much so that it is often diffi- 

 cult to find them, and they do not start into growth again till spring is 

 well in. Most of them are very old plants ; new species are seldom brought 

 to notice. Hybrids in the last few years seem inclined to appear, and it 

 may be fairly surmised that the beautiful rose colour of some of the 

 forms of Canterbury Bell (C. Medium), a biennial, may before long 

 become fixed in some of the perennial varieties. 



I have roughly arranged the family into nine important groups, under 

 the following names : — 



1. Pyramidalis group. G. Rotundifolia group. 



2. Latifolia group. 7. Muralis group. 



• J >. Persici folia group. 8. Medium group (biennial). 



I. (ilomerata group. 9. Loreyi group (annual). 



5. Carpatica group. 



And in briefly noticing them I have thought it best to begin with the tall 



