76 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



Lower California, Dr. E. Palmer ; who mentions it as " a large 

 shrub, about four feet high, of rather loose habit, found only iu 

 the crevices of high rocky cliffs, March 28. Flowers yellow." A 

 purple hue in the small I'ays is evident, and the disk-corollas seem 

 to have turned purplish also, as tliey are apt to do in the heterocliro- 

 mous Asterinece. The plant agrees so well in habit, and so nearly in 

 character, with Dlplostephium of South America that it may fairly 

 be referred to that genus, some species of which are equally destitute 

 of an outer abbreviated pappus, while some are said to want the ray 

 altogether. The general aspect is also much that of the InidecB, an 

 Old World group ; but the anthers are completely tailless, and the 

 appendages of the style-branches are manifest, although not strongly 

 marked internally, the stigmatic lines not ending abruptly. Still 

 more does it recall some of the South American Vernoni(s in appear- 

 ance and especially in inflorescence. It seems best not to constitute 

 genera upon single species with no more salient characters than these, 

 but a subgeneric distinction may mark its peculiarities. The heads 

 are barely half an inch long. 



•^ Aster Coloradoensis. Mach.eranthera sed pereunis, nanus, 

 tomentuloso-canescens ; caulibus in caudice lignescente confertis pluri- 

 mis monocephalis ; foliis imis spathulatis, summis fere linearibus, 

 omnibus argute dentatis, dentibus spinuloso-setiferis ; involucri hemi- 

 sphserici squamis pluriserialibus subulatis laxiusculis ; ligulis 3")-40 

 linearibus purpureis elongatis ; acheniis brevibus turbinatis creberrime 

 cano-viilosis. — Colorado Rocky Mountains ; in South Pai-k, on 

 banks, gravel-bars, or open hills, Canby, Porter, Wolf and Roth- 

 rock, Greene ; and San Juan Pass in the south-western part of the 

 State, at 12,000 feet, Braudegee. A species several times collected 

 and passed over as a very dwarf form of A. canescens, from which it is 

 wholly distinct. The tufted stems ai-e only 2 or 3 inches high. 



•^ DicORiA Brandegei. Diffusa, pube substrigulosa cinerea; foliis 

 lanceolatis obtusis subintegerrimis ; capitulis laxe racemoso-paniculatis 

 jiarvis ; involucri squama interna florem foemineum fulcrante unica 

 c;\3teris hand longiore achenio oblongo turgido margine calloso-dentato 

 subdimidio breviore. — On the Rio Montezuma de San Juan, near the 

 south-western corner of Colorado, T. S. Brandegee in Ilayden's Ex- 

 ploration, 1875. An interesting accession to the genus, requiring 

 considerable modification of the character, there being only one female 

 flower; its broad subtending scale hardly enlarging, thin but not 

 scarious or colored ; the exserted and naked akene more thick, convex 

 and angled on the back, develoj)ing on the margins only I'igid blunt 



