The small, shell-shaped leaf is broad, heart-shaped at the base, with a scalloped margin. The leaves are strung on the stalk, alternately, at short distances; they are stiffish in texture, and light green in color.
The deeply divided 5-pointed corolla is a deep reddish-violet; there are 5 stamens, and the pistil is 3-parted; the long, cylindrical, green calyx has 5 slender points. The flowers grow from the angles of the leaves, there being usually a number open at once toward the top of the stalk.
The lower flower buds do not open, ripening their seeds without the show of blossoming. As the flowering season advances the stalk lengthens out into a long wand, strung with shell-like little green leaves, each one holding in its hollow a seed-case.
VENUS’ LOOKING-GLASS: Specularia perfoliata.
| Harebell. | Campanula rotundifolia. |
Found during July and August in rocky soil, along roadside thickets; in damp shade, or on exposed and barren uplands.
The stems of this lovely plant are very slender, like leafy wands, from 10 to 16 inches in height; they are firm and fine in fibre, smooth and shining, and bronzy-green.
The grass-like leaf is about an inch long, fine and thin and smooth; its color betrays the violet hues that temper all the green parts of the plant.
The blossom varies in size rather noticeably. Its corolla is shaped like a bell with 5 small pointed tips which curve outward to show the long lavender pistil with its malachite-green tip; the texture of the bell is delicately thin and yet firm, and the color an exquisite violet, which ranges from pale lavender, or even almost white, to a reddish-purple hue. The green calyx is 5-parted, its divisions very slender, half as long as the bell, and clinging closely to its shape. The many blossoms nod on thread-like stems.