Of the numerous Bell-flowers which abound in the Alps none is more quaint and beautiful than the one here photographed. The whole plant, stem, leaves, and flowers, is covered with short hairs, but around the mouth of the bell the hairs are longer and stiffer, and pure white. It is interesting to note that when cultivated in rockeries in England the hairy character of the plant almost entirely disappears. Some three to five pendent flowers are borne by each flower-stalk, all turned in the same direction. Occasionally a single flowered variety is met with, usually at a high altitude. The ordinary pale blue colour of the flower may disappear entirely, and specimens with pure white blossoms are not infrequent. The plant is found abundantly all over the Alps and Sub-Alps, in meadows and pastures, and to a less extent in open woods, from 3000 feet almost to the snowline (7000 to 9000 feet). It is usually less abundant on limestone than on other rocks. The Bearded Bell-flower is also met with in the Carpathians, Jura, southern parts of Norway, and in other mountainous districts in Europe. It is probably a native of the Alps.
No difficulty will be experienced in recognising the Bearded Campanula. No other Bell-flower has little projections between each of the five teeth of the calyx which are turned back towards the stem. Only one other Bell-flower (Campanula Zoysii), and that a species not always recognised as distinct, has a light blue corolla with long hairs around its mouth. But here there is a constriction just immediately below the opening of the bell, and the plant is smaller and very rare, and occurs only in Eastern Switzerland.
Plate XXVI.
CAMPANULA BARBATA. L.
The Bearded Bell-flower or Campanula. Campanule Barbue. Bärtige Glockenblume.
The Dwarf Hair-Bell or Bell-Flower
(CAMPANULA PUSILLA)
The photograph gives a good general idea of the tufted growth of the Dwarf Bell-flower. The plant is quite small, rarely more than 3 or 4 inches high, and forms dense close-growing tufts of some size. The smooth or hairy flower-stalks bear one to six pale blue flowers and the narrow leaves, which are most numerous and have serrated edges below. There are also short flowerless branches covered with similar leaves, and a few broader leaves with longer stalks grow directly from the root stock. These last are not well seen in the photograph. The plant is very abundant in dry rocky and sandy places, in dried up torrent-beds, by the roadside and on the tops of walls. It is found from the lower mountain region up to some 8000 feet, and descends with some of the rivers towards the plains. It is also found in the Jura and parts of the Black Forest.
The Dwarf Bell-flower will be recognised from most of the other species of Campanula which abound in Switzerland by its broad basal leaves, its narrow stem leaves, and its erect seed pod. But, unfortunately, there are three other Swiss species to which this description equally well applies. Of these the rare Campanula excisa is at once picked out by the deep rounded clefts between the five segments of its bell-shaped flower. Campanula Scheuchzeri is a larger plant of more open and less tufted growth and with fewer flowerless leafy shoots. Its bell-shaped flowers are usually of a darker blue, are more conical, and have a wider opening; they are, in fact, less truly bell-shaped. Campanula rotundifolia, the common Hair-bell of our heaths and downs, which occurs also in Switzerland, is slightly taller than our plant and has also more cone-shaped flowers. Its flower buds are held erect, while those of the other three Bell-flowers we are considering are dependent. In a general way, the low stature and tufted growth of the Dwarf Bell-flower will, in most cases, suffice for its recognition.