There exists a curious phenomenon in all the 
Campanulas^, and in most of the Campanulaceous 
order, which was first observed by Sprengel. The 
surface of the upper part of their style and of the 
stigmatic arms, is covered with long hairs, which 
are very visible in the bud, before the dispersion of 
the pollen ; and which are regularly arranged in 
longitudinal lines in direct relation to the number 
and position of the anthers. At the period of 
dehiscence of the anthers, before the expansion of 
the corolla, and when the arms of the styles are 
still pressed against each other, in the form of a 
cylinder, these hairs cover themselves with a con- 
siderable quantity of pollen, which they brush, so 
to speak, out of the cells of the anthers; and, for 
this reason, they have been named, like the analo- 
gous hairs in Compositae, Collectors. At the 
period when the flower expands, the arms of the 
style or stigmata separate, and curve backwards, 
and the anthers that surround them retire and 
shrivel up, after having lost all their pollen ; but, 
at the same time, the pollen which was deposited 
on the outside of the style, detaches itself, and the 
hairs that covered the surface were supposed to fall 
off. 
Dr. Lindley, who has stated these facts, in the 
Miscellaneous Notices of the Botanical Register, 
says that the hairs here spoken of, do not fall off, 
but they present a phenomenon of which no other 
example is known. They are retractile, like the 
tentacula of snails. They are mere lengthenings 
of the epidermis, and are ultimately received into 
subjacent cavities of the cellular tissue. 
