Although Milfoil was originally a plant of damp or fresh meadows, nowadays it is also found in gardens, hedgerows, forest margins, and forest rides.

As the blue flowers swayed in the summer breeze, the bishop seemed to hear a soft voice. Inspired by the movement and the shape of the flower, he had the first metal bell cast in the town of Nola and installed in the church there.

Today, with increasing use of chemical agents such as fertilizers and pesticides, Pheasant’s Eye is gradually disappearing from farmland. Ultimately it will no doubt make its way southwards again, to the sunny slopes of the Mediterranean region, but will probably remain a permanent feature elsewhere in private and botanical gardens. The plant is also of interest biochemically.

The Creeping Campanula is a perennial of stony fields, alluvial deposits, fallow land, and waste-heaps. It produces a great number of seeds and spreads rapidly and vigorously by vegetative means. On germinating it grows a turnip-like tap root below the ground rosette of leaves. The following year, creeping stems grow from this root, forming further tap roots and ground rosettes round the original. After several years what started out as a few seeds may cover an entire field.

For centuries ordinary folk regarded Milfoil as one of the best of the herbal remedies, and it continues to be used medicinally to relieve spasms, to stimulate digestion, soothe coughs, and check bleeding. However, prolonged use of Milfoil – the active constituent is in the flowering top parts – may result in allergies, inflammation, headaches, and poisoning.

At maturity, the Creeping Campanula may stand at anything from 20-100 cm high. Its young tender stems are a favourite food of cattle, but to eradicate it as a weed is extremely