SOME ERIGERON SEGREGATES. 201 



I must not advance beyond this point in the discussion of 

 the E. salstiginostis medley of the books without adverting to, 

 and critically examining the fine plate, purporting to represent 

 Richardson's Aster salsuginosus published in the Botanical 

 Magazine for the year 1829, t. 2942. Viewed superficially, 

 and without study of the text, and the circumstances under 

 which the plant represented was grown in Scotland, the beau- 

 tiful plate has been a stumbling block. Looked at discrimi- 

 natingly, no plant that I know of, whether of the United 

 States or of British North America, comes anywhere near 

 answering to that fine figure. The whole plant is represented, 

 therefore with the full complement of leaves basal and middle 

 and upper cauline, in all 13 leaves, of which all except the 

 upper 4 are very distinctly, though rather remotely serrate. I 

 have under inspection some 90 herbarium sheets, mostly very 

 good specimens as to foliage, of plants of the West and North- 

 west which on Gray's authority were labelled E. salsuginosus, 

 and not one of the 90 shows a hint of that serrature shown in 



Mag 



He who 



examines the plate sees that the whole plant — so very tall 



had to be drawn in two sections. The section is made midway 



of the stem, and between leaves 9 and 10, counting from the 



base. It is in the least degree disconcerting that all the 9 



leaves of the lower part of the plant are well serrated, the 4 



belonging to the upper section are all at once perfectly entire. 



It suggests a query as to whether the two sections in the figure 



may not have been founded on parts of two different plants. 



The suggestion comes to myself with all the more forcefulness 



because of the fact that the 9 leaves of the lower section, not 



only by their serratures but by their whole outline — if that 



were all — are those of the plant familiar to me as my own E. 



Drtimmo7idii, which was derived from the selfsame part of 



British America whence the seeds from which this Bot. Mag. 



sals2igi7ios7is yv?iS grown. I am far from saying or thinking 



that said plate is thus fictitious. I do not believe that it is. 



However much like those of E. Drummondii in outline and 



indentation, they are shown to be glabrous. Those of Drum- 



