ADENOPHORA. 
imitates C. rhomboidalis with a slavish fidelity rare even among the 
Adenophoras, where imitation of their noble cousins has become a 
craze. 
A. liliiflora (A. lilizfolia of catalogues), on the contrary, strikes out 
for itself a new and original line of beauty. For though the big 
root leaves, toothed and spoon-shaped, are inclined to be rank, the 
tall flower-stems carry a gracious locse fountain of blossom, little 
branches standing out horizontally from the stem, and each carrying 
a carillon of charming blue-violet bells. The plant belongs to 
European coppices in the mountainous regions, and deserves cultiva- 
tion in any place likely to be affected by its cousin, C. latifolia. 
A. megalantha is a new species of the Chinese mountains, a very 
free grower and flowerer about 18 inches high, and yet again like a 
much more graceful and nude-stemmed C. rhomboidalis, with flowers 
of a pale and tender blue. 
A. polymorpha, from China, breaks Chinese tradition by once more 
being merely imitative. The copy this time is of C. rapunculoeides, 
but here the spike is leafier, and stands more erect ; the rampant habit, 
however, is faithfully adhered to. 
A. Potaninii, however, follows more along the lines of A. liliiflora, 
a much taller grower than the last, and much more branchy—the last, 
indeed, is more or less of a mere spire—with Liliiflora’s delightful 
sprays of blossom, soft lilac-blue. A. Potaninti comes to us from 
Turkestan, and is the one Adenophora that appears with any regu- 
larity in catalogues. 
A. stylosa belongs to the woods of Northern Asia, and is a narrow- 
leaved plant attaining to 18 inches, and closely reminiscent of C. 
rhomboidalis, but that the style sticks far out of the flower, like the 
horn of a unicorn. 
A. verticillata grows to some 3 or 4 feet, and has its narrow egg- 
shaped pointed leaves arranged upon its stem in whorls of four at a 
time. The hanging bluebells are crowded towards the top of the spire. 
Nor does this, of course, by any means exhaust the list of Adeno- 
phoras. But from these scant hints an idea may be gained of their 
general appearance and generic resemblances; so that, in buying 
any new Adenophora from a list, it will be well to get so full a de- 
scription as to guarantee you against merely getting something very 
like what you already have. It must not be forgotten, too, that the 
Adenophoras, though perfectly easy and even rampant, are lovers of 
wood and copse in cool mountainous regions, so that they will be less 
happy in Southerly gardens if the site chosen for them be dusty and 
torrid and dry. They bloom with the tall Campanulas. 
(1,919) 17 B 
