RYDBERG: Rocky MOUNTAIN FLORA 135 
Aster Richardson, var. gigantea Hook. F1. Bor.-Am. 2: 7. 1834. 
Aster sibiricus giganteus A. Gray, Syn. Fl. 17: 177. 1884. 
Aster giganteus Rydb. Bull. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 2: 184. 1901. 
In describing Aster meritus,* Professor Aven Nelson evidently 
was correct in referring the name A. Richardsoniit Spreng. to the 
subarctic species, characterized by the densely villous peduncles 
and involucres, which the writer has named A. giganteus. Rich- 
ardson collected both, as shown by specimens in the Columbia 
University herbarium, and evidently included both under the name 
A. montanus, but his description applies only to the plant which 
Hooker afterwards named and described as A. Richardsonit, var. 
gigantea. There are, however, two points in Professor Nelson’s 
discussion which are a little erroneous, ambiguous, and unclear, 
wherefore I add the following. 
Professor Nelson has made the following remarks: ‘It is 
equally clear that A. Richardsonii is the name given to the A. 
montanus Nutt.” If this was true, A. Richardsonit should be a 
synonym of A. sericeus montanus of the Southern States, and I re- 
ceived that impression when I read Professor Nelson’s discussion. 
Evidently this was not Professor Nelson’s intention. He evidently 
meant A. montanus Richardson. 
From Professor Nelson’s discussion, one also gets the impres- 
sion that A. meritus Nels. is not found in the subarctic regions, 
and is a plant of the Rocky Mountains only, but this is not the 
fact. The specimens regarded as A. Richardson by Hooker and 
cited in his Flora, as collected in the “ barren country from lat. 
64° to the Arctic Seas”’ belong to A. meritus. Two of Richard- 
son’s specimens are in the herbarium of Columbia University. 
These cannot be distinguished from Nelson’s vos. 2734 and 6610 
cited under A. meritus. 
As said before, Richardson collected both plants. Hooker was 
the first one to distinguish them and made one the species, the 
other the variety of A. Richardsonti Spreng., as A. montanus Rich- 
ardson was not available on account of the older A. montanus Nutt., 
A. Richardsonit Spreng. being only a substitute for the former. 
Under ordinary circumstances, we should have followed Hooker's 
interpretation and used A. Richardsoni for the short-pubescent 
* Bot. Gaz. 37: 268, 1904. 
