ADENOSTYLIS, 
Adenostylis forms a small family of Composites which no one in 
the Alps can see without admiration. In the higher pastures, especially 
near chalets, as in the lower lush meadows, A. albifrons makes a 
magnificent spectacle, with its huge coarsely-toothed kidney-shaped 
leaves, more or less grey below with down, and then, on stems of 
18 inches or 2 feet, wide conspicuous great heads of mauve-pink foam. 
Much less notable is A. alpina, a smaller growth in all its parts, 
much smoother, white-stemmed, and with toothed leaves like a big 
pointed-winged heart ; and the flowers are rather laxer in the head, 
though not at all dimmer in the tone of their soft lilac-pink. The 
Tyrolese A. crassifolia, however, returns more towards the splendour 
of Albifrons, but the leaves are leathery, almost like those of some 
Bergenia-Saxifrage (though not glossy), and woolly beneath; the 
plant is much dwarfer in habit, and the branching flower-heads are 
much looser, though each radiating stem is crowned with a generous 
tuft of pinky-mauve. Other species are A. viridis and A. leucophylla 
(in which the leaves are white with down, usually on both sides, but 
certainly on the upper); and all the species are lovers of moist cool 
soil in mountain-woods, open lush places, damp rocks, mossy gorges, 
and so forth. Similar conditions will best suit them in the garden ; 
but it must be remembered that they are not choice treasures so much 
as magnificent and ramping weeds that need to be planted in wide 
stretches for their full decorative value to be seen. In such a spacious 
and suitable situation they would associate brilliantly with Geranium 
sylvaticum or G. ibericum, especially if Trollius were added to complete 
the character of the picture. 
Adonis is a race largely composed of annual cornfield weeds, of 
which the best is the brilliant A. flammea. But there is an alpine 
section, comprising some half a dozen species, so very closely allied 
that it would seem as if they were all developments of one original 
form. These bloom early in the year, and some very early, almost 
before the leaves appear (like Anemone alpina by the melting snow- 
patches); all have large yellow flowers, quite close to the ground 
when they flower, but with stems afterwards elongating till the plant 
grows stout and rank and leafy with its expanded foliage. These 
species thrive readily in any deep rich soil in an open and sunny 
position, deserving, however, a little protection for their flowers 
against the inclemencies of early spring, in the case of the most pre- 
cocious species. They are not easy of propagation, seed being slow 
and untrustworthy, while the clumps are inclined to resent being 
moved or divided. 
A. amurensis, the earliest of all (March), has my own warmest 
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