﻿Bicknell: Ferns and flowering plants of Nantucket 569 



of these asters, or even if they are intergradient — here on Nan- 

 tucket is the plant of the New Jersey pine barrens in exact counter- 

 part and perfectly acceptable to the eye as being not the same 

 as its more northern relative. As compared with the latter the 

 Nantucket plant has shorter and broader leaves of thicker texture, 

 deeper green above and conspicuously pale beneath, harmonizing 

 well by contrast of color with the usually deep purple stems. 

 Although it grows to a height of 1.5 m. and has leaves as broad 

 as 3-4 cm., there is an interesting smaller form only 5-6 dm. high 

 with more numerous crowded leaves, 4-5 cm. long, i. 25-1 .50 cm. 

 broad. In the most typical examples the involucral bracts are 

 broader and more obtuse than those of D. umbellata, and the 

 pappus at maturity is of a bright cinnamon brown color. It is 

 quite possible that typical D. umbellata grows in some of the 

 Nantucket swamps but I have never collected it. 



* Erigeron pulchellus Michx. 



Not infrequent in Pocomo, especially towards Wauwinet; 

 observed elsewhere only in Quaise, a small colony, and at the 

 border of Tom Never's Swamp, a solitary cluster. In full flower 

 June 9, 1909, 191 1. 



* Erigeron philadelphicus L. 



Several well developed plants in full flower June 22, 1910, at 

 the border of a swamp west of Long Pond. 



* Erigeron annuus (L.) Pers. 



Scarce. A single flowering plant in an old field near Miacomet 

 Pond September 21, 1899; a group in the same locality, just in 

 bloom June 22, 1910; one plant on Lily Street August 6, 1906; 

 well colonized in a pasture near Island Home, June, 1912. 

 Erigeron ramosus (Walt.) B.S.P. 



Widely scattered over the downs and commons, mostly single 

 plants of low stature; of better size and more gregarious habit in 

 old fields and grass lands. First flowers June 18, 1908, June 25, 

 1910, 1912, blooming through September. 



Mrs. Owen's catalogue records the occurrence of the frequent 

 form or state of the species having the rays very short or wanting 

 — var. discoUeus Robbins. 



