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Venus's Looking Glass

Specularia perfoliata. Campanula Family.

Stem.--Somewhat hairy; three to twenty inches high. Leaves.--Toothed; rounded; clasping by the heart-shaped base. Flowers.--Blue. Calyx.--Three, four, or five-lobed. Corolla.--Wheel-shaped; five-lobed. Stamens.--Five. Pistil.--One, with three stigmas.

We borrow from Mr. Burrough's "Bunch of Herbs" a description of this little plant, which blossoms from May till August. "A pretty and curious little weed, sometimes found growing in the edge of the garden, is the clasping specularia, a relative of the harebell and of the European Venus's looking-glass. Its leaves are shell-shaped, and clasp the stalk so as to form little shallow cups. In the bottom of each cup three buds appear that never expand into flowers, but when the top of the stalk is reached, one and sometimes two buds open a large, delicate purple-blue corolla. All the first-born of this plant are still-born as it were; only the latest, which spring from its summit, attain to perfect bloom."