There is one other British species--some say it is a mere variety of the foregoing--Rooting Marsh Marigold (_C. radicans_), with triangular leaves and rooting stems. It occurs only in Forfarshire, and is very rare.
[Illustration: =Wild Hyacinth. Blue-bell.=
The name is derived from the Greek, _Kalathos_, a cup, in allusion to the form of the flower.
=Wild Hyacinth, or Blue-Bell= (_Scilla nutans_).
After the daisy, buttercup and primrose, few wild flowers are better known than the Blue-bell or Wild Hyacinth. In the very earliest days of spring its leaves break through the earth and lay in rosette fashion close to the surface, leaving a circular tube through which the spike of pale unopened buds soon arises. A few premature individuals may be seen in full flower at quite an early date; but it is not until spring is fully and fairly with us that we can look through the woods under the trees and see millions of them swaying like a blue mist; or, as Tennyson has finely and truly worded it, “that seem the heavens upbreaking through the earth.” This must not be confounded with the Blue-bell of Scotland, which is _Campanula rotundifolia_ (_see_ page 78).
If we dig up an entire specimen we shall find that, like the hyacinth of the florist, its foundation is a roundish bulb, in this case somewhat less than an inch in diameter at its stoutest part. The leaves have parallel sides, or, as the botanist would say, they are linear; and before the plant has done flowering they have reached the length of a foot or more, whilst the flower-stalk is nearly as long again. Before the flowers open the buds are all erect, but these gradually assume a drooping attitude; though when the seeds are ripening the capsule again becomes erect.
The flower is an elongated bell, showing no distinction between calyx and corolla; it is therefore called a perianth. It consists of six floral leaves, joined together at their bases, the free portions curling back and disclosing the six yellow anthers, which are attached to the sides of the perianth, one to each segment. The ovary is surmounted by the thread-like style, ending in a minute stigma. The capsule is three-celled, and when the seeds are ripe each cell splits down the side to release the shining black seeds.