139 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



The Asters. — I wonder if other lovers of botany have with the 

 Asters the same trouble I am compelled to contend with ? The ques- 

 tion may seem a foolish one, but as I have seen nothing in print on 

 the subject of complaint, I wish some of the Gazette readers would 

 give me, and perhaps others, the benefit of their experience. 



Of all our wild flowers the Asters seem to me to be the most ag- 

 gravating to the amateur. They are attractive and beautiful as they 

 grow where nature strews them, but when the collector comes to name 

 his treasures, their beauty and attractiveness are perhaps lost to him 

 in the exhibition of a little temper, or may be in one or two bad words. 

 I might complain of the cause of this, the variability of the plants, 

 but that is not my chief stumbling-block, although they are sometimes 

 rough when they should be smooth, or the leaves serrate when they 

 ought to be entire, or the other way. 



I have two hand books of botany; Gray's "New Lessons and Man- 

 ual," and Alphonso Wood's "Class Book." They make "confusion 

 worse confounded" On the color of the rays, the source of all my 

 trouble, they neither agree between themselves, nor with the flowers 

 as I find them. Here I do not rely upon my own judgment, but 

 upon that of my sister, who is no botanist, but whose sense of color 

 is very acute. As examples of their disagreement let me cite the fol 

 lowing: Wcod says oi Aster ericoides, L., "pale purple flower;" 

 Gray, "rays white." Of ^. longifolius, Lam.. Gray says, "bright 

 purplish-blue;" Wood, "light-blue rays." Of ^. Ixvis, L., Gray says, 

 "rays sky-blue;" Wood, "fine blue becoming purple." The list 

 might be prolonged. 



Now as to my great trouble. A specimen that I suppose to be A. 

 prenaiitJwides, Muhl., according to the books has the "rays pale-blue" 

 They do not seem so to me, and the question brings the reply, "light 

 lavender." A. cordifolius, L. is described accurately, but with "rays 

 pale blue" again. "What color do you call that ''"' is asked. "Light 

 purple." A. Im'is, has "rays sky-blue," says Gray. I ask my sister 

 agam, also two other persons. The three answers agree, "light pur- 

 ple." If Job had studied the Asters would we not be without one of 

 our favorite comparisons ? 



The reader may think that my specimens have not been correctly 

 identified. I should think so, too, if, omitting the color and mak 

 ing allowances in this variable genus, the descriptions in the books 

 did not agree so exactly with the plants themselves. Have others 

 had the same trouble.? Has any one seen a sky-blue Aster ? I v.'ish 

 some one would rise and explain, and, as "misery loves company," 

 that he would give us the benefit of his experience if he has suffered 

 the same annoyance. — A. C. S. , Trenton, N. J. 



[The easiest way to dispose of this whole subject is to remember 

 that color in flowers dots not "count for much." — Ed.] 



Distribution of Nymphace^ in Arkansas. — While traveling 

 through Arkansas this summer 1 noticed Nelumbhwi luteiitn, Willd. 

 growing in ponds in Miller county en the Red River above and below 



