Herbs with a milky juice, alternate leaves, and without stipules. Flowers mostly blue, showy. Calyx superior, generally 5-cleft, persistent. Corolla regular, cam-panulate, generally 5-cleft, withering, valvate in aestivation. Stamens 5, free from the corolla; anthers distinct. 2-celled; pollen spherical. Ovary adherent to the calyx, 2 or more celled. Style covered with collecting hairs. Capsule crowned with the remains of the calyx, loculicidal. Seeds many.

Illust in fig. 313, 819.

Genera 28, species 500, chiefly abounding in the northern temperate zone and in South Africa. Of its 500 species, according to Alphonse De Candolle, only 19 inhabit the torrid zone. The Campanulaceae are interesting chiefly for their beauty, being destitute of any important known properties.

1. CAMPAN'ULA, Tourn. (Lat. campanula, a little bell; from the form of the flowers.) Calyx mostly 5-cleft; corolla campanulate, or subrotate, 5-lobed, closed at base by the broad, valve-like bases of the 5 stamens; stigma 3 to 5-cleft; capsule 3 to 5-celled, opening by lateral pores.-Mostly . Fls. generally in racemes, sometimes spieate, or few and axillary.

1 C. Americana L. St. erect; lvs. ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, uncinately serrate, contracted to a winged petiole, veins often ciliate; fls. axillary, sessile; stylo exserted, decurved.-A tall, erect, ornamental species in copses, woods, etc. Western N. Y. and Penn. to Ill., common. Also cultivated in gardens. St. 2 to 8f high, nearly smooth. Lvs. ending in a long point, smooth, with fine teeth. Fls. blue, flat, on short stalks, or sessile, numerous, solitary, or several in each upper axil, forming a terminal, leafy raceme. Corolla spreading. Aug.† (C. acuminata Mx.) C. Illinoensis Frosen (in DC.) is a branching state of the same plant.

2 C. planiflora DC. Very glabrous; st. simple; lvs. sessile, coriaceous, shining, radical, crowded, ovate or obovate, obtuse, crenulate, cauliue linear-lanceolate, acute, subentire; fls. in a spicate raceme; cal. lobes ovate, acute, 1/3 as long as the campanulate-rotate corolla.-Native about Hudson's Bay (Pursh.) A species with numerous blue fls. Stem about a span high. † (C. nitida Ait.)

3 C. rotundifolia L. Hare Bell. St. weak, slender; radical lvs. ovate or reniform-cordate; cauline, linear, entire; fls. few, nodding.-Fine and delicate, with blue, bell-shaped fls. On damp rocks, rocky streams, N. States and Brit. Am. St. a foot or more high, smooth. The root lvs. generally decay on the opening of the flowers, so that a specimen with these (7 to 10" by 4 to 7") is rather rare. Cauline lvs. smooth, linear, 2' long and scarcely a lino in width Fls. terminal, in a loose panicle, drooping. Root creeping, perennial. Jn., Jl.

4 C. persicifolia L. St. angular, erect; lvs. rigid, obscurely crenate-ser-rate, radical oblong-obovale, cauline lance-linear; fls. large, broadly campanulate. -A beautiful species, native of Europe, with very large, blue (varying to white) flowers. Corolla about 1' broad. †

5 C. aparinoides Ph. St. flaccid, slender, branching above, triangular, the angles inversely aculeate; lvs. lance-linear, subentire; lis. terminal.-A slender annual, found in wet meadows, Can. and Wis. to Ga. St. 12 to 18 high, its 3 angles rough backwards, by means of which it supports itself upright among the grass. Lvs. smooth on the upper surface, 1 to 2' in length. Us. broad, bell, shaped. 4" wide, white, on thread-like, flexuous peduncles at the top of the stem. Jn.-Aug.

β. ERINOIDES. Lvs. elliptical, less than 1' in length; fls. smaller. (C. erinoi-des Mx.)

6 C. divaricata Mx. Glabrous, erect, with slender, divaricate, paniculate branches; lvs. narrow-lanceolate, pointed at each end, sharply dentate; fls. cam-panulate, pendulous on the slender branchlets.-Rocky woods, along the Mts., Ky., Va. to Ga. Plant about 2f in height. Lvs. 2 to 3' by 2 to 5". Corolla exactly bell-shaped, 4 to 5" broad, its segments revolute. Jl., Aug.

7 C. glomerata L. St. angular, simple, smooth; lvs. scabrous, oblong-lanceolate, cordate-sessile, lower petiolate; fls. crowded in a dense head; cal. lobes acuminate, half as long as the funnel-shaped corolla.-A European species, cultivated in gardens, naturalized at Danvers, Vt. (Oakes.) It is a handsome plant, about 2f high, with numerous bell-shaped flowers of an intense violet-blue, varying to pale purple. In cultivation it has many varieties. § †

8 C. Medium L. Canterbury Bells. St. simple, erect, hispid; lvs. lanceolate, obtusely serrate, sessile, 3-veined at baso; fls. erect, bell-shaped, with an obtuse base.- An ornamental border flower, from Germany, and of the easiest culture. Root biennial Stem several feet in height, undivided, rough with bristly hairs. Flowers very large, the base broad, limb reflexed, of a deep blue. Several varieties occur with double or single flowers, of blue, red, purple and white corollas. June-Sept. †

9 C. lanuginosa, with ovate, crenate, rugous and somewhat woolly lvs. and rather large flowers, acute at base, is sometimes cult., and also a few other species.

2. SPECULA'RIA, Heist. (Lat. speculum, a mirror; alluding to the flower of S. speculum.) Calyx 5 lobed, tube elongated; corolla rotate, 5-lobed ; stamens 5, distinct, half as long as the corolla, filaments hairy, shorter than the anthers; style included, hairy; stigmas 3 ; capsule prismatic, 3-celled, dehiscing in the upper part.- Fls. axillary and terminal, sessile, erect.

1 S. perfoliata Lam. St. simple, rarely branched, erect; lvs. cordate, crenate, amplexicaul; fls. sessile, aggregate, axillary.-Plant somewhat hairy, a foot high, found in fields and roadsides. The strict, upright stem, is furnished with distant, short, alternate, heart-reniform, veiny, stem-clasping leaves, containing 1-4 crowded flowers in the concavity of their upper surface. Flowers axillary and terminal, the upper clusters larger. Corolla blue or purple, with spreading segments, calyx seg. acute, lanceolate. Jn., Jl (Campanula amplexicaulis Mx.)

2 S. Ludoviciana Torr. St. at length producing numerous slender branches; lvs. broad-ovate, acute, subentire, sessile or slightly amplexicaul; fls. axillary and terminal on the slender branches.-La. (Hale) and S. Car. (Curtis.) Plant similar in size and appearance to No. 1, but its flowers are rather smaller, with quite slender ovaries.

3 S. speculum L. Venus' Looking-glass. St. diffuse, very branching; lvs. oblong-crenate; fls. solitary; scales at the base of the corolla sometimes wanting.-A pretty border flower, named from the form of the blue corolla, which resembles a little, round, concave mirror (speculum). Aug. †