Plants -- Identification; Wild flowers -- Great Britain
Our last Composite flower is the Common Chamomile (_Anthemis nobilis_),
which is abundant on the downs of the southern counties of England,
flowering from July to September. It is an aromatic herb, with a
procumbent stem, from six to twelve inches long, and ascending, leafy,
flowering branches. The leaves are bipinnate, slightly downy, with very
fine, almost hairlike, segments. The flower-heads are terminal, with a
white ray and yellow disc, surrounded by blunt bracts the inner of which
have membranous tips. On the receptacle are little broad scales, nearly
as long as the disc florets.
On heaths almost everywhere we may see the pretty Roundleaved
Bell-flower or Harebell (_Campanula rotundifolia_), which displays its
gracefully drooping bells from July to September. It has a slender,
smooth, erect or ascending stem, from six to twenty inches high, which
is usually branched. Its popular and scientific names both appear to be
inappropriate if we examine the plant during its flowering season, for
the only leaves then usually observable are the very narrow ones,
generally quite entire, attached to the stem; earlier in the year,
however, it has a few round or heart-shaped leaves, with long stalks,
close to the base of the stem; but these commonly die about the time
that the flowers commence to appear. The flowers are sometimes solitary,
but often form a loose raceme of several bells.
[Illustration: THE HAREBELL.]
The Clustered Bell-flower (_Campanula glomerata_) is common on the downs
of most parts of England, and often very abundant in the South. It has a
stiff, hairy, erect, angular, unbranched stem, from three to eighteen
inches high. On some of the dry, chalky downs of the South the plant is
often very dwarfed, being scarcely noticeable among the rather
closely-cropped grass. The leaves are oblong or lanceolate, with crenate
margins, rough and hairy, the lower ones stalked, but the upper sessile
and clasping the stem. The flowers are about three-quarters of an inch
in diameter, and form a dense cluster among the upper leaves. The
corolla is blue, bell-shaped, with five spreading lobes; and the fruit
is a short, broad capsule, surmounted by the teeth of the calyx, and
opens, when ripe, by slits near the base. This species flowers during
July and August. It may be identified by reference to Fig. 2 of Plate
VI.
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