BLUE AND PURPLE FLOWERS 
Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia) . Bluebell family, 
June to September. 
A perennial with slender stem rarely reaching a foot. The 
flowers are blue, bell-shaped, generally few, pendulous, on 
delicate stalks; calyx and corolla five-pointed. The lower leaves 
(apt to disappear by blooming time) are rounded, mostly 
toothed, long-stalked; the stem-leaves linear, without teeth. 
Shady banks. Its delicacy makes this a favorite plant with the 
poets; thus: 
" The harebell nodding in the gorge of falls." 
— Emerson. 
" Paved with daisies and delicate bells 
As fair as the fabulous asphodels." 
— Shelley. 
On the other side it seems to be called Hairbeli as well as Blue- 
bell of Scotland. But our spelling is used, at least in some 
editions, in the " Lady of the Lake " : 
"E'en the slight harebell raised its head 
Elastic from her airy tread." 
Jacob's Ladder (Polemonium Van-Bruntice). Polemonium 
family. May to July. 
A perennial with maximum height of three feet from a hori- 
zontal root-stalk; flowers (three-fourths inch broad) clustered, 
terminal; corolla (blue-purple) bell-shaped, five-lobed; stamens 
protruding. The leaves are pinnately compound, leaflets egg- 
shaped, without stalks, nine to twenty-one below, three to five 
above. Swampy ground. New York and South. The origin 
of the generic name is obscure, from the Greek meaning war, 
for reason unknown. 
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