In early spring the Harebell plant consists of a tuffet of small, round, slightly notched leaves, on spreading stems; these mostly disappear when the flowering stems begin to rise. In part, the swaying, flexile grace of gesture belonging to these flowers may be due to the light way in which the bells are caught in their tiny calices. When advanced in maturity the pistil becomes 3-parted and loses its vivid green tip. The Harebell is commonly credited with a love of shade, but it is frequently found in the crevices of exposed rock-ledges; and a favorite haunt, in one instance, is a bare mountain ridge, covered only by thick dry gray mosses, where these lovely bells nod amidst the Ebony Fern leaves (A. ebeneum), in thrifty vigor under the broad sunlight.
HAREBELL: Campanula rotundifolia.
| Bellflower. | Campanula rapunculoides. |
Found in July on dry roadsides, and along walls and fences.
The stalk is single and leafy, slender, and slightly rough with hairs, from 2 to 4 feet in height; light green.
The root-leaves are small, and heart-shaped, with scalloped margins, set on stems that are sometimes 6 inches long. The lowest leaves along the stalk are shaped like an Indian arrow-point; the upper leaves are long and narrow: the margins are irregularly toothed, they are thin in texture, hairy, and light green; and are set on short broad stems which clasp the stalk alternately.
The corolla is bell-shaped with 5 outward-curving, tapering tips, and a beautiful violet-blue color; the pistil is 3-parted, protruding, and purple tinted; the green calyx is 5-parted, its divisions abruptly turned back. The flowers are set along one side of the stalk in the angles of the small upper leaves, forming a long wand-like spire.
Although the flowers bloom first at the base of the spire, frequently, when the tip has begun to hang out its noticeable bells, fresh buds will push forth far below, and open beside the old dried blossoms at the foot,—for the withered flower clings long to the calyx.
