CAMPANULACE^E. 13 
Var (3, n/oii tana. 
Lower stem - leaves elliptical - oblanccolate. Plowers usually 
solitary. 
On heaths and pastures, &c. Very common, and generally 
distributed. Var. $ on mountains. 
England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Late Summer 
and Autumn. 
Stem G inches to 2 feet high, leafy below, very sparingly so in 
the upper half. Corolla £ to 1 inch long, pale-blue, slightly inclining 
to purple. Plant dark-green, nearly glabrous. Var. /3, in its extreme 
states, appears very different, but is connected with the typical plant 
by insensible gradation. 
Hare-bell. 
French, Campanula & Feuilles Radicales Rondes. German, Rundblattrige Glockenblume. 
Our very poetical English name for this pretty flower induces us to seek for some- 
thing more attractive than the names we have just given for it in French and German. 
"We find that in France it is also called Clochette, and in Germany Weisen Busch, or 
Milch Glocken. 
No wild flower is more admired, or has had its praises sung by poets more fre- 
quently, than this pretty delicate little inhabitant of every sunny bank and heath of 
our country districts. Every village child loves its tiny bells, and numerous are the 
fancies associated with them. A common rustic name for them is " witches' thimbles," 
and it is certain that, like all enchantments, it will not bear the test of civilization, 
but droops and withers if removed from its native heath. Agriculturists tell us that 
the presence of the Hare-bell is indicative of very poor soil ; yet how lovely are its 
tiny cups waving to and fro on their cobweb stems with every breath of wind, so that 
one might almost believe in the reality of the silver music said to come from them 
in days of yore, when the good fairies 
" Rang their wildering chimes to vagrant butterflies." 
This species we believe to be the true Hare-bell of Scotland. It is 
" The hare-bell that, for her stainless azure blue, 
Claims to be worn of none but those are true." 
And it is the same which, in the " Lady of the Lake," beneath the fairy footsteps of 
Ellen Douglas, 
" raised its head 
Elastic from her airy tread." 
" For me she stoop'd, and looking round, 
Pluck'd a blue hare-bell from the ground. 
This little flower, that loves the lea, 
May well my simple emblem be." 
