Aster. COMPOSIT.E. 191 



A. adscendens, Lindl. A span to a foot or two high, rather rigid, from nearly glabrous 

 to strigulose liirsutulous : stems asc-ending or erect from creeping rootstocks, commonly 

 brandling, bearing few or rather numerous loosely paniculate or subcorymbose heads (these 

 4 or 5 lines high) : leaves of firm and thiekish texture (veins obscure), linear to spatulate- 

 lauceolate, entire, with margins commonly hispidulous-ciliate or scabrous : bracts of the 

 hemispherical involucre oblong-linear or obscurely spatulate, moderately unequal and in 

 comparatively few ranks ; the green tips looser, either glabrous, puberulent, or ciliolate ; inner 

 often mucronulate : rays 3 or 4 lines long, violet or purple. — DC. Prodr. v. 231, & Hook, 

 n. ii 8; Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 111. A. dcmidatus, var. ciUatifoHus, Nutt. Trans. Am. Phil. 

 Soc. vii. 293. A. falcatiis, Eaton in Bot. King Exp. 140, mainly. A. muhijlorus, var. com- 

 mutatus. Gray, PI. Wright, ii. 76, a large form. —Plains and moist banks, Saskatchewan and 

 Montana, to Colorado, New Mexico, N. Arizona, and W. Nevada, ascending the mountains 

 to 10,000 feet ; first coll. in Brit. America by Dnnnmond. 



Var. denudatus, Tore. & Gray, 1. c. A low or slender form, smoother, less leaf}^ 

 or rameal leaves much reduced in size, and smaller heads and rays. — A. deiuidutiis {& A. 

 ramu/osus, in pai"t, as to specimens), Nutt. 1. c. 292. A. Nidtcdlli, Torr. & Grav, 1. c. 126; 

 Eaton in Bot. King Exp., 1. c. — Plains of Utah to 8. Idalio ; first coll. by N.ittnll. 



Var, Yosemitanus. Greener, less rigid, with comjjaratively large heads and 

 looser involucre. — JSierra Nevada, from Summit to the Yosemite Valley. 



A. Hallii, Gray. Stem strict, a foot or two high, leafy to the top, bearing numerous short 

 racemosely disposed and ascending flowering branches ; these minutely pubescent : leaves 

 (1 or 2 inches long, barely 2 lines wide) entire, scabrous-ciliolate, otherwise smooth and 

 glabrous, neither dilated nor contracted at base: heads small (3 lines high) and numerous, 

 somewhat i-acemosely paniculate and crowded : involucre campanulate, glabrous ; the bracts 

 subspatulate-liuear with oval or oblong green tips rather close and erect : rays 2 or 3 lines 

 long, white or whitish. — Proc. Am. Acad. viii. 388, name only. — Dry ground, Oregon, 

 E. Hall (distrib. no. 243), Lohb (289), Henderson. Perhaps this is A. hracteolafus, Nutt. 

 Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. vii. 293, no specimens of which seem to have been preserved, and 

 which is comjjared with A. camjiestris, but is said to have a smooth invohxcre. 



b. Involucre of the middle-sized heads more or less imbricated but looser; the bracts all narrow 

 (linear or approaching subulate), thinnish, from moderately to liardly unequal, loosely erect, all 

 acute or acutish, with not at all dilated tips, nor are the outermost normally eidarged-foliaceous : 

 leaves mostly entire. 



1. Low, or only a foot or two high, chiefly of the mountains and high northward, mostly glabrous 

 or a little pubescent. 



A. AndinuS, Nutt. Dwarf, with decumbent stems 2 or 3 inches long from filiform creep- 

 ing rootstocks, bearing a solitary comparatively large head : leaves only half-inch long ; 

 radical and lower cauliuc spatulate ; cauline (2 or 3) linear-lanceolate : involucre hemispheri- 

 cal, 4 lines high ; its linear acutish bracts of almost equal length, nearly glabrous : rays 

 violet, 4 lines long (35 to 40): style-tijjs short-lanceolate, acute. — Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. 

 vii. 280; Torr. & Gray, PI. ii. 154. — Eockj' Mountains at Thornberg's Ridge, Wyoming, 

 lat. 42°, near perpetual snow, Nuttall. Not since found ; perhaps a liigli alpine state of A. 

 Fremont!. 



A. spathulatus, Lindl. Low, a span or two high, with ascending stems sparingly 

 branched above and bearing 3 to 5 corymbosely disposed pedunculate rather large (half-inch 

 high) heads: leaves (ljto3 inches long) linear-spatulate or upper linear-lanceolate with half- 

 clasping base, and radical broader : involucre hemispherical ; its linear bracts acutish, nearly 

 equal : rays rather short, 3 lines long. — DC. Prodr. v. 231, «& liook. Fl. ii. 8 ; Torr. & Gray, 

 1. c. — Subarctic America, lietween Bear Lake and Fort Franklin, on the Mackenzie River, 

 Ricluirdson. Approaches the next ; but not matched. 



A. Premonti. A span to a foot (rarely 2 feet) high, glabrous or some minute soft pubes- 

 cence along tiie upper part of the slender erect stem : leaves thinner and with margins either 

 quite naked and smooth or obscurely ciliolate-scabrous ; radical and lowest cauline oblong or 

 oblanceolate, or somewliat obovate (inch or two long), and tapering into a slender mar- 

 gined petiole ; cauline from oblong-lanceolate to linear, commonly half-clasping at base ; 

 heads solitary in the smaller specimens, several in the larger, one third to lialf an inch high 

 (and the numerous violet rays 4 lines long), somewhat naked-peduncled : bracts of the invo- 

 lucre narrowly linear, obtuse or acutish, or the inuer acute, some of the outer shorter, all 



