The Garden Magazine, October, 1923 
109 
so slender that the little flowers shake and 
tremble with the slightest breeze, and indeed, 
many botanists do spell it this way. In an 
old book, “ Flowers of the Field,” by the Rev. 
C. A. Johns, he says, “The name Hairbell is 
frequently, though not correctly, given to the 
Wild Hyacinth or Bluebell (Agraphis nutans, 
or Hyacinthus nonscript us), a plant with a 
thick juicy flower-stalk; but when applied to 
the Campanula is most appropriate, its stalks 
being exceedingly slender and wiry I found 
this same Hairbell on Cape Cod under much 
the same conditions as to soil and climate as 
we had in the north of England and it might 
be well employed in New England rock- 
gardens for dry, marly slopes. Hares in 
AN INTERNATIONAL TRIANGLE 
IN BLUEBELLS 
Three Flowers that Go By the 
Same Name and Yet Belong to 
Three Entirely Different Families 
In America the Mertensia (M. virginica, shown 
at left) is known as the Bluebell, a title doubtless 
conferred by early comers from Britain in com¬ 
memoration of the Bluebells of their native heath 
The Bluebell (Campanula rotundifolia) of Scot¬ 
land’s song and legend, persistently called the 
Hairbell by English neighbors because of its 
slender stem; a lover of hilly pastures. Shown 
above in a somewhat forced “portrait position ” 
—naturally the flowers are pendent 
Ten years ago, when driving by our little 
cemetery here, I saw two great bunches of 
dark pink something, and said, “What can 
they be? I must see.” So went in and found 
two great clumps of Peonies. I counted the 
bloom on one and found I96buds and blooms. 
1 said to the caretaker, “ How long have they 
been here and whatever did you do to them? ” 
He replied that they were three-year-old plants 
fifteen years ago, and nothing done but set 
them in an old fence row that has never been 
plowed. Every two or three years since I’ve 
counted the bloom. This year there were 
360 blooms on one clump, and many of the 
stalks were 55 inches tall, some 57, one 39, 
with a bud at the top, which when opened 
England and Scotland were seen in fields 
in the valleys among rich, lush grass and 
never seemed to have any connection with 
their namesake of the moors and no real Brit¬ 
ish person could confuse a hare with such a 
bad fellow as a rabbit! However, it is 
cruel enough of me to insist upon Bluebell for Scilla nutans without 
inflicting upon you that source for perennial discussion, Hare- versus 
Hairbell.— Ethel Anson S. Peckham. 
—All of which is a side light on the pitfalls of nomenclature of plants. 
The word Harebell was an interpellation in the editorial office to supply 
a “common” name for the benefit of those people who abhor “ proper” 
plant names. As those common names are so notoriously indefinite 
reference was had to Bailey’s “Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture”, 
where, under Scilla, you will read: “nonscripta Hoff, and Link. (S. 
nutans, Smith. S.festalis, Salisb. 5 . cernua, Salisb. Hyacinthus non- 
scriptus, Linn.) Common Blue Squill. Harebell.” Our personal 
preference, or prejudices, are entirely in accord with those of our cor¬ 
respondent, authorities, great or little to the contrary, notwithstand¬ 
ing. There is a justifiable logic in Mrs. Peckham’s arguments.— Ed. 
To Move or Not to Move Peonies 
To the Editors of The Garden Magazine: 
WANT to tell you a Peony story. You may want to ask as a friend 
did when I told it to him, “Were you at church last Sunday?” 
1 have two witnesses this time and am sending one of the stalks to the 
Editor, keeping the tallest myself. 
would make more than the 60 inches. 1 have 
that stalk now with seed pod that measures 
the 59 inches. The clump measures 32 x 34 
inches across at the ground, has about 100 
stems, now 23 years in that place, a high well 
drained spot. And still you read: “Move 
your Peonies every ten or so years.” This proves not. I’ve visited 
four pretty good sized Peony gardens and have never seen anything 
to equal it. Have others?— Mrs. Cora Jewell, Darlington, Ind. 
—Only in commercial gardens where it is desired to propagate 
rapidly are Peonies lifted frequently. For effective use in the border 
the Peony should be left alone and not disturbed. Indeed it takes 
three years for the average plant to assume its real habit after being 
moved. The vigor of the specimen described indicates that soil and 
moisture conditions are just right.— Ed. 
Insurgent Rose Culture: Moving in Late Summer 
To the Editors of The Garden Magazine: 
HOUGH the veriest amateur 1 have had some Rose experience 
which, because it is against the rules, may interest some of your 
readers. I have some score of Hybrid Tea Roses which are my spoiled 
babies, receiving all the care that magazine, rose annual or bulletin 
recommends. 
Last year we bought a summer place and I was no longer on the spot 
to give my Roses their daily attention. They soon showed the neg¬ 
lect! That I could not stand; so 1 spaded up a four-foot bed in my 
lakeside garden. As fast as a bush went out of bloom, 1 dug it up in 
the English Bluebell (Scilla nutans, at right) or 
Wood Hyacinth whose azure runs freely through 
the woods and meadows of England, known to 
the Scotch as Harebell and more aptly dubbed 
the Bluebell Squill by the illustrious botanist, 
Bentham 
