94 Rhodora [May 
3800 feet) and reaches its southern limit as a very rare plant in north- 
central New Jersey, classed as * Carolinian." But the most startling 
example of Hill's conception of a “ Carolinian” plant is Aster nemoralis, 
an unusually distinct species which occurs from the bogs and moun- 
tains of Newfoundland to Hudson Bay and northeastern Massa- 
chusetts and southward very locally in cold bogs to the pine barrens 
of New Jersey. Yet, in spite of this well known distribution, the 
author presents a map purporting to show the “Carolinian” range 
of the plant. 
Just why Aster nemoralis has been singled out for vague and unsup- 
ported generalizations by recent phytogeographers, who have not taken 
the slight trouble to look up either the large herbaria at hand or 
the equally accessible literature, it is difficult to say, unless, per- 
haps, it is the unusual color (for an Aster) of its pink rays. In 
his Flora of the Vicinity of New York in 1915, Taylor laid great em- 
phasis' upon the supposed absence of A. nemoralis from the area 
between New Jersey and Newfoundland (a range indicated in Fig. 1), 
from which fictitious data he drew far-reaching conclusions; but, 
as the present reviewer pointed out at that time, he had quite ignored 
X 
Pai d | ee 
j a | 
r \ 
Figs. 1-3. ASTER NEMORALIS Ait. 
Range, fig. 1, as defined by Taylor; fig. 2, as published by Hill; fig. 3, as shown 
by the Gray Herbarium and standard local floras. 
the abundant literature and the scores of herbarium-specimens which 
showed A. nemoralis to grow in every province and state (except 
Connecticut) between Newfoundland and New Jersey! The author 
of the Flora now under discussion has certainly read the latter review; 
nevertheless, he now publishes a map which is as misleading as was 
the imaginary statement of range above referred to. Hill gracefully 
acknowledges the placing at his disposal of the facilities of the Gray 
Herbarium, but a brief five minutes spent in looking up the material 
of Aster nemoralis in that collection would have shown it from the 
Natashquan River, entering the Gulf of St. Lawrence from the Lab- 
1Taylor, Mem. N. Y. Bot. Gard. v. 24 (1915). 
2 Fernald, Ruopona, xvii. 68 (1915). 
