STUDIES IN THE COMPOSITA. 245 
while, what I named L. alpina belongs more naturally to 
another group as Asteroidee, that of which Aster linariifolius 
may be taken of the type. Receiving this group in generie 
rank, I propose to name it, in allusion to the violet rays, 
IONACTIS. 
Low tufted perennials, often lignescent at base, never sto- 
loniferous, or with radical leaves. Stems clothed equably 
with narrow entire rigid one-nerved and veinless leaves and 
terminating in one or more showy heads with violet rays. 
Involucre of well imbricated bracts of coriaceous texture, 
without herbaceous tips, appressed even to the tips. Achenes 
narrow, villous. Pappus double, the more copious inner 
series bristly, the outer short and setulose. 
1. I. nrwARIFOLIA. Aster linariifolius, Linn. Sp. 874 
(1753). Chrysopsis linarüfolia, Nutt. Gen. ii. 152 (1818). 
Diplostephium linariifolium, Nees, Ast. 199 (1832). Diplo- 
pappus linariifolius, Hook. F1. ii. 21 (1834). One of the most 
beautiful of all North American asteraceous plants, and of 
the widest geographical range, being of frequent occurrence 
from Newfoundland to Wisconsin and Texas. All foreign 
authors, even the most careful and critical, seem to have 
believed it suffrutescent, having been misled by the hard- 
hess and rigidity of the stems in the herbarium specimens. 
Although as good a botanist as Lindley insisted on A. rig- 
idus, Linn., as distinct from this, I can find no ground for 
that opinion. 
2. I. ALPINA. Chrysopsis alpina, Nutt. Journ. Philad. 
Acad. vii. 34. t. 3, fig. 2 (1834). Diplopappus alpinus, Nutt. 
Trans. Am. Phil Soc. vii. 304 (1840). Aster scopulorum, 
Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. xvi. 98 (1880). Rather notably un- 
like the preceding in mode of growth, the monocephalous 
stems arising from a thoroughly ligneous and multicipitous 
ase. The rays are not *light-violet" as said by Gray in 
