Rydberg : Rocky Mountain flora 135 



Aster Richardsonii, var. gigantea Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. 2 : 7. 1834. 

 Aster sibiricus giganteus A. Gray, Syn. Fl. I 2 : 177. 1884. 

 Aster gigantcus Rydb. Bull. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 2: 184. 1901. 



In describing Aster meritus,* Professor Aven Nelson evidently 

 was correct in referring the name A. Richardsonii Spreng. to the 

 subarctic species, characterized by the densely villous peduncles 

 and involucres, which the writer has named A. giganteus. Rich- 

 ardson collected both, as shown by specimens in the Columbia 

 University herbarium, and evidently included both under the name 

 A. montanus, but his description applies only to the plant which 

 Hooker afterwards named and described as A. Richardsonii, var. 

 gigantea. There are, however, two points in Professor Nelson's 

 discussion which are a little erroneous, ambiguous, and unclear, 

 wherefore I add the following. 



Professor Nelson has made the following remarks : " It is 

 equally clear that A. Richardsonii is the name given to the A. 

 montanus Nutt." If this was true, A. Richardsonii should be a 

 synonym of A. sericcus montanus of the Southern States, and I re- 

 ceived that impression when I read Professor Nelson's discussion. 

 Evidently this was not Professor Nelson's intention. He evidently 

 meant A. montanus Richardson. 



From Professor Nelson's discussion, one also gets the impres- 

 sion that A. meritus Nels. is not found in the subarctic regions, 

 and is a plant of the Rocky Mountains only, but this is not the 

 fact. The specimens regarded as A. Ricliardsonii by Hooker and 

 cited in his Flora, as collected in the " barren country from lat. 

 64 to the Arctic Seas" belong to A. meritus. Two of Richard- 

 son's specimens are in the herbarium of Columbia University. 

 These cannot be distinguished from Nelson's nos. 233 4. and 6610 

 cited under A. meritus. 



As said before, Richardson collected both plants. Hooker was 

 the first one to distinguish them and made one the species, the 

 other the variety of A. Richardsonii Spreng., as A. montanus Rich- 

 ardson was not available on account of the older A. montanus Nutt., 

 A. Richardsonii Spreng. being only a substitute for the former. 

 Under ordinary circumstances, we should have followed Hooker's 

 interpretation and used A. Richardsonii for the short-pubescent 



* Bot. Gaz. 37 : 268. 1904. 



