Flowers usually blue or white. Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary; limb 5-partite, rarely 3–4- or 6–7-partite. Corolla regular, campanulate or more or less tubular at the base; lobes as many as the divisions of the calyx, valvate. Stamens free from the corolla; filaments often dilated at the base; anthers oblong, free. Ovary 2–5-celled; ovules numerous; style cylindric; stigma 2–5-fid. Capsule 2–5-celled, opening loculicidally within the calyx-lobes with 2–5 valves. Seeds numerous, small.
A large genus of about 80 species, most numerous in South Africa, but not uncommon in other parts of the Southern Hemisphere; rare in the tropics or in the north temperate zone.
| Annual. Stems leafy, usually branched. Leaves never rosulate. Corolla 5-lobed, much longer than the calyx | 1. W. gracilis. |
| Perennial. Leaves rosulate or crowded on the short stems. Corolla 5-lobed, much longer than the calyx | 2. W. saxicola. |
| Perennial. Leaves crowded, spathulate, with thick white cartilaginous margins. Corolla 5-partite nearly to the base, altogether included within the calyx-lobes | 3. W. cartilaginea. |
1. W. gracilis, A. D.C. Monog. Camp. 142.—An exceedingly variable annual or rarely perennial herb. Stems slender, angled, 3–24 in. long, erect or decumbent at the base, simple or branched, glabrous or more or less hispid with stiff white hairs. Lower leaves ½–2 in. long, obovate or spathulate to lanceolate or linear, often narrowed into a more or less distinct petiole, entire or sinuate-toothed; margins often cartilaginous; upper leaves smaller and narrower, sometimes almost subulate, sessile, entire or sinuate. Peduncles slender, terminating the branches, very variable in length. Flowers ¼–½ in. long, dark or pale blue, sometimes almost white. Calyx-tube from ovoid to narrow-obconic; lobes 3–5, linear from a triangular base. Corolla variable in size, campanulate, 3–5-lobed. Capsule ¼–½ in. long, oblong or obconic, narrowed into the peduncle. Seeds ellipsoid, compressed, smooth.—A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 225; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 420; Raoul, Choix, 44; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 159; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 169; Benth. Fl. Austral. iv. 137. Campanula gracilis, Forst. Prodr. n. 84.
Kermadec Islands, North and South Islands, Chatham Islands: Common throughout, ascending to 4000 ft. November–February. Also in Australia and Tasmania, eastern Asia, and southern Africa.
Several varieties have been named, but they run so much into one another that it is hardly possible to satisfactorily define them.
2. W. saxicola, A. D.C. Monog. Camp. 144.—A small perfectly glabrous perennial herb 2–12 in. high, either simple or with a branched rootstock putting up few or many short erect stems, usually leafy at the base only. Leaves rosulate or crowded on the short stems, ½–1½ in. long, from narrow-obovate to oblanceolate or almost linear, obtuse or acute, narrowed into a short petiole,
