Aster. COMPOSIT.E. 177 



Var. giganteus, A. Richardsonii, var. giganteus. Hook. 1. c, and A. montanus, var. 

 gigcDiteiis, Turr. & (iray, 1. c, is a stout and large form, of the Arctic regions, nearly an- 

 swering to tlie original ^1. Sibiricus, L., of Siberia. 



A. radxilinus, Gray. Between the preceding and the following, 10 to 20 inches high: 

 leaves from oval-obovate to broadly lanceolate (2 to 4 inches long), serrate with numerous 

 sharp teeth, scabrous : heads numerous, corymbosely cymose : involucre broadly turbinate, 

 3 or 4 lines higii ; its bracts regularly imbricated and outer successively shorter, cinereous- 

 pubescent or glabrate, not glandular nor viscid, from broadly lanceolate or oblong to linear, 

 abruptly acutish or obtuse : rays 3 to 5 lines long, pale violet, sometimes whitish : akenes 

 minutely pubescent. — Proc. Am. Acad. viii. 388, & Bot. Calif, i. 323. A. radula. Less, in 

 Linn. vi. 125, not Ait. — Dry ground, California, from Monterey northward, and in the Sierra 

 Nevada to Oregon and Wasliingtou Terr. 



A. COnspicuus, Lindl. Scabrous : stem 2 feet high, stout, rigid, bearing several or nu- 

 merous corymbosely cymose heads : leaves rigid, ovate, oblong, or the lower obovate, acute, 

 ample (commonly 4 to 6 inches long and l^^ to 4 inches broad), acutely serrate, rigid, reticu- 

 late-venulo.se as well as veiny: involucre broadly campanulate, about equalling the disk, 

 5 to 6 lines high; its bracts in several series, minutel}' glandular-puberuleut or vi.scidulous, 

 lanceolate, acute, tiie greenish tips little spreading : rays half-inch long, violet : akenes 

 minutely pubescent. — Ilook. Fl. ii. 7, & DC. Prodr. v. 230; Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 107. — 

 Saskatchewan to British Columbia, and south to the Yellowstone in the Rocky Mountains ; 

 first coll. by Drummond. 



•H- -w- ++ Involucre very squarrose by the foliaceous widely spreading tips of the bracts, smooth 

 and glabrous, as is also the foliage: heads large and panicidate: Alleghai'.ian. 



A . Curtisii, Tokr. & Gr.w. Almost wholly glabrous and smooth : stems 2 or 3 feet high, 

 rather slender, the larger loosely paniculately branched ; branches bearing scattered large 

 heads : radical and lower leaves (3 or 4 inches long) ovate-lanceolate, acumiuate, sparingly 

 serrate, gradually or abruptly contracted into winged petioles ; u])[)er ones lanceolate and 

 sessile, becoming entire : involucre hemispherical, equalling the disk, half-inch high ; the 

 much imbricated coriaceous bracts very conspicuously appendaged with foliaceous ovate or 

 short-lanceolate tips, or the outer more than half foliaceous : rays rather broad, half-inch 

 long or more, deep violet-blue : akenes compressed, broader ujtward and with narrowed apex, 

 glabrous. — Fl. ii. 110. — Margin of woodlands, in dry soil, through the Alleghauies in 

 N. Carolina and adjacent borders of Tennessee : very showy. 



* 2. Involucre and usually branchlets viscidly or pruinose-glandular, therefore more or less gra- 

 veolent, either ■well imbricated or loose: rays showy, violet to purple: akenes mostiv several- 

 nerved and narrow : pubescence not sericeous: leaves all entire or lower witli few and rare teelh, 

 except in the last species; cauline all sessile or partly clasping: true perennials, mostly multi- 

 plying by subterranean rootstocks or other shoots. (Glandular involucre also in species of 

 § Mdchcemnthera, some of which are short-lived perennials.) — Glandulosi. 



-1— Bracts of involucre rather well imbricated, commonly with more or less rigid appressed base 

 and foliaceous or herbaceous tips: rays not extremely numerous, irom 15 to 40. 



++ Stem simple: leaves and heads proportionally large: Rocky Mountain alpine or subalpine 

 species. 



A. integrifolius, Nutt. Stem mostly a foot or more high, stout, sparsely leafy, villous- 

 pubesceut liut glabrate, bearing few or several racemosely or thyrsoidly disposed heads : 

 leaves of tirni texture, oblong or spatulate (the larger 4 to 7 inches long) or the smaller 

 upper ones lanceolate, sometimes obsoletely repand-serrulate, apiculate, traversed by a strong 

 midrib, venulose-reticulated, glabrate, half-clasping ; lowest tapering into a long stout wing- 

 margined petiole with clasping base: heads fully half-inch high, hemispherical : involucre 

 and branchlets viscid-glandular; its bracts few-ranked, linear, ascending, not scjuarrose ; the 

 outer sometimes short and rather close, commonly larger and more foliaceous, nearly equal- 

 ling the inner; these equalling the disk: rays 15 to 25, bluish-])urple, half-inch long: akenes 

 compressed-fusiform, 5-nerved, and sometimes with intermediate nerves, sparsely pubescent : 

 pappus decidedly rigid. — Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. n. ser. vii. 291 ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. Ill ; 

 Gray, Bot. Calif, i. 324. — Open and moist subalpine woods or meadows, Montana to the 

 Cascade Mountains in Oregon, south to Colorado, and along the Sierra Nevada, California, 

 in the Yosemite, &c. ; first coll. by Nuttall. 



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