Aster. COMPOSITE. 191 



A. adscendens, LINDL. A span to a foot or two high, rather rigid, from nearly glabrous 

 to strigulose-hirsutulous : stems ascending or erect from creeping rootstocks, commonly 

 branching, bearing few or rather numerous loosely paniculate or subcorymbose heads (these 

 4 or 5 lines high) : leaves of firm and thickish texture (veins obscure), linear to spatulate- 

 lanceolate, entire, with margins commonly hispidulous-ciliate or scabrous : bracts of the 

 hemispherical involucre oblong-linear or obscurely spatulate, moderately unequal and in 

 comparatively few ranks ; the green tips looser, either glabrous, puberulent, or ciliolate ; inner 

 often mucroimlate : rays 3 or 4 lines long, violet or purple. DC. Prodr. v. 231, & Hook. 

 PL ii, 8; Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 111. A. dtntidutus, var. ciliatifolins, Nutt. Trans. Am. Phil. 

 Soc. vii. 293. A. falcatus, Eaton in Bot. King Exp. 140, mainly. A. multiflorus, var. com- 

 mutatus, Gray, PI. Wright, ii. 76, a large form. Plains and moist banks, Saskatchewan and 

 Montana, to Colorado, New Mexico, N. Arizona, and W. Nevada, ascending the mountains 

 to 10,000 feet; first coll. in Brit. America by Driuiuuand. 



Var. denudatus, TORR. & GRAY, 1. c. A low or .slender form, smoother, less leafy, 

 or rameal leaves much reduced in size, and smaller heads and rays. A. denudatus (& A. 

 ramutosus, in part, as to specimens), Nutt. 1. c. 292. A. Nultal/ii, Torr. & Gray, 1. c. 126; 

 Eaton in Bot. King Exp., 1. c. Plains of Utah to S. Idaho; first coll. by Nuttall. 



Var. Yosemitanus. Greener, less rigid, with comparatively large heads and 

 looser involucre. Sierra Nevada, from Summit to the Yosemite Valley. 



A. Hallii, GRAY. Stem strict, a foot or two high, leafy to the top, bearing numerous short 

 racemosely disposed and ascending flowering branches ; these minutely pubescent : leaves 

 (1 or 2 inches long, barely 2 lines wide) entire, scabrous-ciliolate, otherwise smooth and 

 glabrous, neither dilated nor contracted at base: heads small (3 lines high) and numerous, 

 somewhat racemosely paniculate and crowded : involucre campaunlate, glabrous; the bracts 

 subspatulate-liuear with oval or oblong green tips rather close and erect: rays 2 or 3 lines 

 long, white or whitish. Proc. Am. Acad. viii. 388, name only. Dry ground, Oregon, 

 E. Hall (distrib. no. 243), Lobb (289), Henderson. Perhaps this is A. bracteolatus, Nutt. 

 Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. vii. 293, no specimens of which seem to have been preserved, and 

 which is compared with A. canijnstris, but is said to have a smooth involucre. 



b. Involucre of the middle-sized heads more or less imbricated but looser; the bracts all narrow 

 (linear or approaching subulate), thinnish, from moderately to hardly unequal, loosely erec-t, all 

 acute or acutish, with not at all dilated tips, nor are the outermost normally enlarged-foliaceous : 

 leaves mostly entire. 



1. Low, or only a foot or two high, chiefly of the mountains and high northward, mostly glabrous 

 or a little pubescent. 



A. Andinus, NUTT. Dwarf, with decumbent stems 2 or 3 inches long from filiform creep- 

 ing rootstocks, bearing a solitary comparatively large head : leaves only half-inch long ; 

 radical and lower cauline spatulite ; cauline (2 or 3) linear-lanceolate : involucre hemispheri- 

 cal, 4 lines high ; its linear acutish bracts of almost equal length, nearly glal irons : rays 

 violet, 4 lines long (35 to 40): style-tips short-lanceolate, acute. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. 

 vii. 290 ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 1 54. Rocky Mountains at Thornberg's Ridge, Wyoming, 

 lat. 42, near perpetual snow, Nuttall. Not since found ; perhaps a high alpine state of A. 

 Fremonti. 



A. spathxilatus, LIXPL. Low, a span or two high, with ascending stems sparingly 

 branched above and bearing 3 to 5 corymbosely disposed pedunculate. rather large (half-inch 

 high) heads: leaves (lto3 inches long) linear-spatulate or upper linear-lanceolate with half- 

 clasping base, and radical broader : involucre hemispherical ; its linear bracts acutish, nearly 

 equal : "rays rather short, 3 lines long. DC. Prodr. v. 231, & Hook. Fl. ii. 8 ; Torr. & Gray. 

 1. c. Subarctic America, between Bear Lake and Fort Franklin, on the Mackenzie River, 

 Richardson. Approaches the next ; but not matched. 



A. Fremonti. A span to a foot (rarely 2 feet) high, glabrous or some minute soft pubes- 

 cence along the upper part of the slender erect stem : leaves thinner and with margins either 

 quite naked and smooth or obscurely ciliolate-scabrous ; radical and lowest cauline oblong or 

 oblanceolate, or somewhat obovate (inch or two long), and tapering into a slender mar- 

 gined petiole ; cauline from oblong-lanceolate to linear, commonly half-clasping at base ; 

 heads solitary in the smaller specimens, several in the larger, one third to half an inch high 

 (and the numerous violet rays 4 lines long), somewhat naked-pednncled : bracts of the invo- 

 lucre narrowly linear, obtuse or acutish, or the inner acute, some of the outer shorter, all 



