ASTER. 
chains in the highest fine turf of the mountains, and often in company 
with similar tuffets and wide clumps of the Flannel-flower, is one of 
the loveliest of all, and one of the best known. (Division or seed.) 
In any light soil, enriched at need with chips of lime, it succeeds inde- 
fatigably in full sun, and glorifies June with its abundant flowers of 
richest violet, with a solid eye of bright gold. In the moraine, too, it 
looks especially beautiful, particularly mixed with masses of Edelweiss 
as on the Alps, the silver and purple making a noble contrast which re- 
quires no further addition (unless it be the sheeny silvers of Artemisia 
Mutellina), though it does not suffer if the loose spires of the best 
Aeizoon Saxifrages come showering up among them as they do on the 
high shoulder below the Laemmern glacier. Single-stemmed and purple 
though the species is, there are many variations, some of which carry 
distinctive names, though the gardener could pick out a couple of 
dozen quite as good or better for himself in half an hour among its 
tuffets on the Alps. But A. a. baldensis is a form which has the 
peculiarity of branching stems that carry several bright flowers of 
rosier note ; and, as for the endless pinks, dark violets (very beautiful), 
and whites, these there is no need to describe, any more than the 
forms of greater or lesser height, or congestion of habit. Slugs do 
not despise this plant, which also inspires a fatal passion in mice. 
A. Amellus, though in a much less choice style, has a degree of 
beauty that fits it as well for the rock-garden or the border. It 
is a common sub-alpine of the copses and wood-edges in the South 
of Europe, growing 2 feet or more in height, with leafy stems carrying 
several large heads of splendid blue-purple in late summer and autumn. 
In habit it is neat but of rapid increase; there are innumerable 
varieties which may be found offered in catalogues of Michaelmas 
Daisies, seeing that A. Amellus is quite fitted to hold its head high 
among the most choice and beautiful of cultivated forms. Among 
the most splendid of these, however, is the form A. A. bessarabicus, 
especially profuse with flowers of special size and especially rich violet- 
blue ; and in the same kinship is another beautiful Aster by the name 
of A. cassubicus, to say nothing of the closely allied species A. 
amelloeides. But not one of these has the cloudy loveliness of A. 
acris. 
A. altaicus may have the benefit of the doubt and be admitted to 
this select fold. For though by one authority it sounds but poor, by 
another it is favourably painted as being about 6 or 8 inches high with 
leafy stems, rather hoary, and flower-heads of “blue” in a loose 
cluster. (Alps of North Persia to Siberia and Tibet.) 
A. andinus admits of no doubt to have the benefit of. It is a 
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