Aster. COMPOSIT^E. 145 



Low or moist grounds, Canada and Northern States ! to Missouri ! Ken- 

 tucky ! and the upper districts of the Southern States ! Sept.-Oct. — Stem 

 3-8 feet high, mostly ])urple, hirsute with spreading sharp jointed hairs; the 

 summit and branches furnished besides with a more or less copious close 

 granular-viscid pubescence, which also clothes the pedicels and the involu- 

 cre, and exhales a faint resinous odor. Leaves 2-4 inches long, about half 

 an inch wide, finely reticulate-veined, often somewhat 3-nerved ; the lower 

 more obtuse ; those of the flowering branches often tinged with purple, like 

 the involucre. Heads in a sliort thyrsus or corymb, or in compound some- 

 what paniculate corymbs, often an inch and a half in diameter, including the 

 large and very numerous violet-purple rays; the latter sometimes rose-color 

 in cultivation (A. roseus, Desf. cat. hort. Par.) ; the disk turning slightly 

 purplish. Scales of the involucre numerous in 2-3 series, but similar in 

 size and form, lax, and very narrow, so that the involucre appears nearly as 

 simple as an Alpigenous Aster, attenuate from the short chartaceous ap- 

 pressed base to the apex ; or the outermost almost entirely foliaceous. — A 

 handsome and well-known species, of very uniform appearance in its native 

 situations, but several varieties have resulted from long cultivation in the 

 European gardens. To tliis, or to A. puniceus, probably belongs the A. cou- 

 cinnus, CoUa, hort. Ripul. appx. 3, in act. acad. Tur. 33. j). 134, t. 12, 

 which De Candolle has incautiously cited under A. concinnus, Willd. 



71. A. modestus (Lindl.) : stem glabrous below, the summit and the pe- 

 duncles, or branches of the simple corymb, glandular-pubescent; leaves nu- 

 merous, lanceolate, acuminate, sparingly and sharply serrate, glabrous, part- 

 ly clasping; scales of the involucre linear-lanceolate, acute, lax, erjual, about 

 the lenijih of the disk ; achenia pubescent. — Lindl. ! in Hook. Jl. Bor.-Am. 

 2. p. 8,''(!^-?n DC. j)rodr. 5. p. 231. 



(i. branches of the corymb longer and somewhat leafy; scales of the invo- 

 lucre rather shorter. — A. Sayianus, Nult. ! in trans. Amer. j^hil. soc. {n. 

 ser.) 7. p. 294. 



Mountain woods at the mouth of Smoking River, lat. 5G° (near the Rocky 

 Mountains), Drummond f ft. Forests of the Rocky Mountains (lat. 42° ?), and 

 plains of the Oregon, Nuttall! — Stem about a foot high, simple. Leaves 

 about 3 inches long, less than an inch wide, serrate with small often spread- 

 ing teeth; the uppermost clasping by a broad base; the lower somewhat 

 narrowed at the base and less clasping. Heads few, resembling those of A. 

 Novae-Angliae ; the scales of the involucre fewer and rather broader, some- 

 what glandular. "Rays pale blue," Am^^. Achenia 10-ribbed, pubescent, 

 especially on the ribs, both in a. and (3., which differ very slightly. 



*** Several insufficient specimens of undetemiined species remain in our collec- 

 tions, or in those submitted to our examination : we think it better to leave them 

 unnoticed than to describe from imperfect materials, which is. veiy hazardous in 

 such a genus as the present. 



t Species unlcnown to us, founded on native specimens. 



72. A. ccerulescens (DC): stem erect, smooth; branches erect, leafy, 

 racemose; leaves sessile, about half-clasping, broadly linear or Ungulate, 

 acute somewhat coriaceous, entire, almost smooth, the margins and midrib 

 beneath scabrous; those of the branchlets (which bear single heads) gradu- 

 ally passing into the oblong acute loosely imbricated and slightly s(iuarrose 

 scales of the involucre. DC. prodr. 5. p. 23o. 



Texas, in the eastern districts, Berlandicr. — Cauline leaves 3 to 4 inches 

 long, 4 lines broad. Heads as large as in A. puniceus ; the rays pale-blue. 

 Achenia almost glabrous. Pappus reddish-brown, DC. — The species ia 

 placed next to A. puniceus. 



vol,. II. -19 



