THE two FORMS OF THF. SEA-ASTER. 237 



same plant grows on the side of dried up ditches or on low banks, 

 they possess a ray (absent in the fornier) of delicate lavender 

 florets surrounding a yellow centre, wliich clothes theni in an 

 entirely different aspect. 



Has any one remarked on this peculiarity before ? I do not 

 find it noted in my hand-book. 1 closely examined the marine 

 plants and found in many cases a few poorly developed lavender 

 ray-florets growing unevenly here and there, but the majority 

 had none at all, and the few that produced them looked as if they 

 were half ashamed of owning such shabby productions. Yet just 

 over the sea wall, where the tide could not penetrate, the lavender 

 or purple rays were in full bloom, and conspicuous by their 

 strong and healthy condition. Is it a case of degeneration ? 

 Can it be that the sea-aster thriving on the soft luscious mud of 

 the saltings, has found such a luxuriant habitat that it troubles 

 no longer to produce the beautifully tinted ray-florets which erst 

 were probably intended to attract the helpful bee or other 

 winged insect ? 



In the present crowded state of the plants, would the wind be 

 a sufficient carrier of pollen ? They certainly show a very marked 

 variation in accordance with habitat. It has at first sight the 

 look of a clear case of either evolution or devolution, and I should 

 be glad of an opinion, if I can elicit such, in the pages of the 

 Essex Naturalist. 



[The two forms of the Sea-Aster are, of course, well-known, the rayles 

 or generally nearly rayless, one being separated as var. discoideits, but I have 

 been unable to find that anyone has before connected the forms with a 

 difference in habitat. When 1 received Mr. Clark's interesting notes 

 last year, it vvas too late to test the suspicion that possibly there was a 

 young and an older form of the flower, and that the latter had shed the ray- 

 florets. I therefore, with Mr. Clark's approval, kept the note back. Whilst on 

 the Essex Coast this August and September I paid attention to the asters, and 

 I can certainly confirm Mr. Clark's observations. I observed very many 

 thousand plants growing on the mud bordering the estuaries and creeks, and 

 in the vast majority the purple "rays" were absent in all stages — the 

 imperfectly rayed plants noticed were only a very small percentage of the 

 wholly rayless form. At the same times, the asters growing on the higher 

 tideless lands in St. Osyth parish and elsewhere, were conspicuously attired 

 with beautiful purple, or whitish purple, rays. Diptera and Hymenoptera 

 frequent both forms — but in my experience are in far greater profusion on the 

 " rayed " asters. — W. Cole.] 



