/ /£ [ 142 ]
P H Y T E U M A orbicularis.
Round-headed Rampion.
P E N 7 A N D R I A Monogynia.
Gen. Char. Cor. wheel-fhaped, in five linear feg-
ments. Stigma three-cleft. Capjule three-celled.
Spec. Char. Flowers in a roundifh head. . Leaves
ferrated ; the radical ones heart-fhaped.
Syn. Phyteuma orbicularis. Linn. Sp. PI. 242.
HudJ. FI. An. 97. With. Bot. Arr. 220.
Rapunculus corniculatus montanus. Rail Syn. 278.
W E are obliged to Thomas Cornwall, Efq. of Chafl Park
Surrey for this fpecimen, gathered wild in that county, in
feveral parts of which, as well as in Suflex and Hamplhire,
this rare plant is found abundantly on a chalky foil, and flowers
about July or Auguft. It is one of our more elegant and
Angularly conftructed productions, and may be cultivated
without trouble in a dry gravelly or calcareous fituation,
though we mult own the rich blue of its flower-buds is moft
confpicuous in a wild Hate.
The long woody root branches near the furface o f the ground
into feveral divifions, each bearing a denfe tuft of petiolated,
fmooth, veiny, ferrated, or rather crenated, leaves, the firft of
which are heart-fhaped, the reft ovato-lanceolate, and from
the centre of which arifes a Ample eredt Item, flightly angular,
and clothed with alternate lanceolate leaves, the uppermoft of
them very acute, and fomewhat recurved. A Angle round
head of flowers Hands eredt on a few ovate, acute, ciliated
bradteae. The parts of fructification agree in ftrudture with
the genus of Campanula, except that the corolla is divided to
the very bafe, into five linear fpreading fegments, which in
the bud cohere together, forming a curved horn, and feparating
firft at their lower part. Every part of the flower remains permanent,
though faded, till the feeds are difperfed, or longer.
The herb is milky, but not acrid.