1915] Hall: New and Noteworthy Californian Plants 173 



portion, while in Macronema the branches are more slender, long- 

 exserted from the corolla-tube, and the acute appendage is much longer 

 than the stigmatic portion. These differences are illustrated in the 

 accompanying figures. 



Aster cognatus sp. nov. 



Suffrutescens : caulibus ramosis, ca. 7.5 dm. altis, albis glabrisque, 

 vel superne viridescentibus giandulosisque, usque ad capitulos foliosis : 

 foliis oblongo-ovatis, sessilibus, basi subcordatis, apiee acutis vel obtnsis, 

 2—4 cm. longis, 1-2 cm. latis, margine spinoso-dentatis. rigidis. reticula- 

 tis, minute et sparse glanduliferis : capitulis solitariis. ramos foliosos 

 adscendentesque terminantibus ; pedunculis brevibus vel nullis : invol- 

 ucro hemisphaerico, diametro ca. 3 cm. ; involucri squamis exterioribus 

 viridibus, linearibus, attenuatis, usque ad 25 mm. longis. glanduliferis ; 

 involucri squamis interioribus brevioribus, lanceolatis, aeuminatis, 

 margine pallidis erosisque : radii floribus ca. 30 ; ligulis subcaeruleis vel 

 violaceis, 15-20 mm. longis: disci floribus numerosis; corolla glabra, 

 tubulosa, ca. 10 mm. longa : styli ramis oblongis, obtusis : acheniis 

 dense longe villosis : pappi setis corollae aequilongis, rigidulis, scabridis, 

 fulvis. 



Foothill slopes about 3 kilometers north of Indio, along the northerly side 

 of Coachella Valley, in Eiverside County, California, May 7, 1905, H. M. Hall, 

 no. 5994 (Herb. Univ. Calif, no 68930), type. Shavers Well, E. E. Schellenger, 

 no. 70. Eock crevices, Red Canon, near Mecca, June 28, 1912, S. B. Parish, 

 no. 9112. All of these localities are within the Lower Sonoran Zone and along 

 the northerly borders of the Colorado Desert. 



This species is closely related to A. Orcuttii Vas. & Rose, a species 

 which ranges from the southerly part of the Colorado Desert ( Borregos 

 Springs and Split Mountain) southward into Lower California; but 

 it differs in the relatively broader leaves, in the glandular inflorescence, 

 and in the narrow and elongated outer bracts of the involcure. How- 

 ever, in the Parish specimen cited above these outer bracts, although 

 quite narrow, are shorter than the inner ones. As contrasted with A. 

 tortifolius (T. & G.) Gray, a related species of more northerly distribu- 

 tion but also reaching the borders of the Colorado Desert. A. cognatus 

 is of very different aspect. Its leaves are nuich shorter, broader, and 

 never attenuate, the herbage is never tomentose nor the heads long- 

 peduncled. and the inner bracts of the involucre are broader. 



Since the proposed species has thus far been found only at 

 stations intermediate between those reported for A. Orcuttii and A. 

 tortifolius, and since its characters are in some respects also intermedi- 

 ate, the possibility of a hylirid origin suggests itself. However, the 



