generally adopted name is posterior to that of Callistemma, 

 also of Cassini, which that author himself suppressed, in 

 consequence of its being so near to Callistemon of Brown. 



The indigenous form of the China Aster appears to be 

 common in the rocky hills of Northern China, from 

 the neighbourhood of Peking to the Yang-tse-Kiang. 

 There are also specimens in the Kew Herbarium from 

 Eastern Turkestan, Western Tibet and Afghanistan, but 

 in the more western of these localities it is no doubt only 

 known as a cultivated plant, as it is in Japan. According 

 to Aiton it was introduced into England by Ph. Miller in 

 1731 : and Dillenius, who received seeds from Prof. Van 

 Royen of Leyden, figured it in 1732. The specimen here 

 figured flowered in the Herbaceous grounds of the Royal 

 Gardens, Kew, in October, 1897, but did not mature seed. 

 It was raised from seeds presented in 1896 by the Messrs. 

 Vilmorin & Co., which were obtained from the Abbe 

 Farges, who collected them in Eastern Szechuan. 



Descr. — A tall, stout, erect, leafy annual, two to three 

 feet high, corymbosely branched above, covered with 

 spreading hairs ; stem and branches angular, of a rich 

 purple brown colour. Leaves two to four inches long, 

 alternate, ovate, deeply, coarsely, obtusely toothed or 

 tabulate, contracted at the cuneate base into a winged 

 petiole. Heads solitary, terminating the branches, up to 

 three and a half inches in diameter. Involucre campanu- 

 late, outer bract's many, herbaceous, lanceolate, obtuse, 

 spreading and recurved, often margined with red-brown ; 

 inner erect, linear-oblong, obtuse, scarious. Receptacle 

 nearly flat, pitted. Rayfi. very many, ligulate, 1-2-seriate, 

 linear, obtuse, violet-blue, female. Dish fl. very many, bi- 

 sexual, golden-yellow, tubular, suddenly contracted below 

 the middle, mouth shortly five-toothed. Style branches 

 short, oblong, flattened. Achenes of all the flowers fertile, 

 oblong, or obovate-oblong, compressed, pubescent, crowned 

 with a ring of very minute bristles. Pappus hairs 

 barbellate, white. — J. D. H. 



Fig. 1, Fl. of ray with portion o£ lignle removed ; 2, pappus hair ; 

 S, achene of do. ; 4, fl. of disk ; 5, anthers ; 6, top of style of disk fl. ; 7, ripe 

 achene of do. :— All enlarged. 



