164 COMPOSITE. Aster. 



20) exserted ; achenia slightly pubescent. — Ell. ! sk. 2. p. 344 ; DC. prodr. 

 b.p. 247. 



Damp soils in the western districts of Georgia, Elliott! Sept.-Oct. — Root 

 apparently annual. " Stem 4-5 feet high, erect, very slender, with a few 

 scattering branches, which near the summit become corymbose. Lower 

 leaves 4 to 6 inches long, scarcely exceeding a line in width, very slightly 

 scabrous along the margin; the upper diminishing in size; those of the 

 branches linear-lanceolate. Flowers [heads] on the lower branches few, on 

 the upper in racemes, on peduncles 2 to 4 lines long. Florets of the ray 

 narrow, twice as long as the involucrum, pale purple; of the disk yellowish." 

 FAl. — We have only seen the specimen in EHiott's herbarium. It is allied 

 to the preceding, but is a much more strict plant; the broader and less 

 pointed scales of the involucre more rigid, &c. 



126. A. paudflorus (Nutt.) : perennial? stem glabrous below, simple, 

 or racemosely branched above ; the strict branches and the somewhat equal 

 (linear-lanceolate) scales of the hemispherical involucre densely viscid- 

 pubescent ; leaves subulate-linear, somewhat fleshy ; the lowermost linear, 

 3-nerved, tapering into a slender petiole, glabrous; those of the branches 

 subulate, scattered, somewhat viscid ; rays (15-24) rather short ; acheftia 

 narrow, obscurely striate, nearly glabrous. — Nutt. ! gen. 2. p. 154, c^ in 

 trans. Amer. phil. soc. {n. ser.) 7. p. 292. Tripolium subulalum, Nees, Ast. 

 p. 167 ; Hook. ! fl. Bor.-Am. 2. p. 15 ; Lindl. ! in DC. prodr. 5. p. 254. 



Margin of saline springs, near Fort Mandan on the Missouri, Nuttall ! to 

 the Saskatchawan, &c. Drummond! Aug. — Stem 8-20 inches high, rather 

 rigid, scarcely flexuous ; the heads (about as large as in A. angustus) solitary 

 or nearly so on the simple or dichotomous branches. Lower leaves 4-6 

 inches long ; the upper a line wide, partly clasping, tapering to a sharp point, 

 the margins scarcely if at all scabrous. Scales of the involucre in about 2 

 series, acute, with scarious margins, rather shorter than the disk, loose. 

 Rays pale purple, linear-oblong. Pappus capillary, nearly in a single 

 series. Appendages of the style lanceolate-subulate ; the stigmatic portion 

 narrowed downwards. Achenia beset with a few very minute scattered 

 hairs. Receptacle slightly alveolate. — This is a somewhat peculiar species, 

 but it is certainly an Oxytripolium (with which it accords in habit,) rather 

 than an Alpigenous Aster. 



127 ? A. occidentalis (Nutt. under Tripolium) : stem nearly simple, with 

 few large and corymbose heads ; leaves all linear subulate, clasping, here 

 and there incisely serrate ; involucre loosely imbricate ; the scales subulate, 

 subherbaceous, nearly equal; rays as long as the disk (pale blue) ; achenia 

 nearly smooth, scarcely striate, compressed. Nutt. — Tripolium (Astro- 

 polium) occidentale, Nutt.! in trans. Amer. phil. soc. {n. ser.) 7. p. 296. 



" Margins of muddy ponds in the Rocky Mountains, 7000 feet above the 

 level of the sea. — Root creeping, slender : stem slender, four inches to a foot 

 high, often only one or two-flowered, seldom more than five or six. Leaves 

 long and narrow, linear, entire, or with one or two pairs of deep incise 

 serratures, almost approaching to a pinnatifid division : branchlets slender, 

 one-flowered : the flower as large as a daisy, with a simple series of pale 

 blue or pink rays. An alpine species, approaching the true Tripolium in 

 the fruit being ahnost destitute of striation." Nutt. — This is described by Mr. 

 Nuttall as a species of his Tripolium § Astropolium (which corresponds with 

 the Oxytripolia of De CandoUe). It seems to us, however, to belong rather 

 with the Alpigenous Asters, except that the appendages of the style are 

 lanceolate-subulate. The upper part of the stem and often the margins of 

 the leaves are a little pubescent ; and the rays are much exserted beyond 

 the disk. The linear-oblong achenia are clothed with a minute appressed 

 pubescence. The root is probably perennial. 



