Erigeron. COMPOSITE. 211 



standing the pure yellow rays, wliich also occur in E. peucephijUas. It can hardly pass 

 into E. ochroleucus. 



•t— -1— -)— Dwarf, cespitose from a nuilticipital caudex, with monocephalous flowering stems;, often 

 scapose : ra.dii:al leaves dissected : pappus simple. 



E. COmpositus, Puksh. From hirsute to glabrate, with slender margined petiole setose- 

 ciliate : radical leaves much crowded on the crowns of the caudex, usually 1-3-ternately 

 parted into linear or sliort and narrow spatulate lobes, the few on the erect fioweriug stems 

 3-lobed or entire and linear: involucre (3 or 4 lines high) sparsely hirsute: rays from 40 to 

 GO, not very narrow, white, purple, or violet, mostly 3 or 4 lines long. — Fl. ii. 535 ; Fl. Dan. 

 xii. 1999 ; Hook, in Trans. Liuu. Soc. xiv. 374, t. 13, & Fl. ii. 17 ; DC. Prodr. v. 288 ; Torr. 

 & Gray, Fl. ii. 167. E. pedatus, Nutt. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. vii. 308. Cineraria Lewisii, 

 Richards, in Fraidil. Journ. App. ed. 2, 32. — Alpine and alpestrine districts of the Rocky 

 Mountains, and of the Sierra Nevada, from S. Colorado and California to Brit. Columbia and 

 arctic sea-coast. (Greenland and Spitzbergen.) 



Var. discoideus, Gray. Rays wanting or abortive: liead commonly smaller. — 

 Am. Jour. Sci. .ser. 2, xxxiii. 237 ; Eaton, Bot. King Exp. 148. — Same range as tlie radiate 

 form, often accompanying it; first coll. by Parr//, &c. 



Var. trifidus, Gray. Small blade of leaves simply 3-5-fid : the lobes from oblong to 

 obovate. — Proc. Am. Acad. xvi. 90. E.trijidus, Hook. Fl. ii. 17, t. 120. — Rocky Moun- 

 tains, N. Colorado to Brit. Columbia; first coll. by Drumviond, later by ./. M. Coulter and 

 Canhi;. 



Var. pinnatisectus, Gray-, I.e. Usually a large form: numerous violet-purple 

 rays 5 lines long: leaves piunately parted into 9 to 11 linear and entire or rarely 2-3-cleft 

 divisions. — Mountains of Colorado, from South Park to the Sierra Blauca ; first coll. by 

 Hall. 

 E. Pringlei, Gray. Smooth and glabrous, densely cespitose from a lignescent multicipital 

 caudex : radical leaves laciniate-pinnatifid into 3 to 5 short-lanceolate or broadly subulate 

 pointed lobes; those of the ascending (2 or 3 inches long) flowering stems linear, entire, 

 5 or 6 in number : involucre hardly 3 lines high, glabrous : rays 20 or 30, purple or whitish, 

 3 lines long. — Proc. Am. Acad. xvii. 210. — Cliffs of Mount Wrightson, Santa Rita Moun- 

 tains, Arizona, Pringle. 



4— -)— -J— -I— Dwarf or low species, alpine or alpestrine, entire-leaved, cespitose from multicipital 

 caudex, no fine or cinereous pubescence, monocephalous: leaves few on the simple stems, at 

 least the radical broader than linear: rays rather numerous and not very narrow : pappus simple 

 or nearlj' so. 



++ Involucre glabrous but pruinose-glandular, brownish-purple: alpine and Aster-like, smooth 

 and gruen. 



E. leiomerus. A span high from the somewhat surculose branches of the caudex, smooth 

 and very glal)rous (or some minute hairiness at least on the petioles) : leaves bright green, 

 mainly radical and spatulate, very obtuse (larger about inch long, with tapering base or 

 petiole of at least equal length), from 2 to G lines wide ; cauline only 2 or 3 and smaller : in- 

 volucre 3 lines high, not unlike that of E. scdsiujinosus, but close, the bracts lanceolate and 

 not attenuate : rays about 40, linear, violet, 3 or 4 lines long. — Aster ijlacialis, Eaton, Bot. 

 King Exp. 142, but hardly that of Nuttall (which is rather a high alpine form of A. sal- 

 suijinoms, to which this is related). Comes close to the next species, to which it has been 

 referred. — Rocky Mountains of Colorado, Utah, and Nevada, in the alpine region; first coU. 

 by Purrij, Hall & Harbour, Watson. 



++ ++ Involucre hirsute or pubescent, greenish : herbage not strigulose nor cinereous. 



E. Ursinus, Eaton-. A span or two high, loosely ce.spitose : leaves duller green, mostly 

 smot)th and glabrous, but their margins more or less hirsute-ciliate, spatulate to narrowly 

 obliinccolate ; cauline ones lanceolate or linear and acute: involucre (3 lines higli) and naked 

 summit of flowering stem hirsute-pubescent : rays 40 or 50, purple, narrowly linear, 3 lines 

 long. — Bot. King Exp. 148 ; (iray, Bot. Calif, i. 327. — Alpine and suljalpine region, Rocky 

 Mountains, Wyoming to S. Colorado, Uinta Mountains, Utah, and on Mount Dana, California; 

 first coll. by Wdlson. 



E. radicatus, Hook. A span high or less, densely tufted : leaves all spatulate-linear or 

 somewhat wider (broadest only a line or two wide), hirsute or hirsutely ciliate, or sometimes 



