10 Report of the State Botanist. 



there about one month later than on Long Island. Of the two 

 remaining species of this group, the shining rose, Rosa lucida, 

 and the dwarf rose, R. humilis^ the extreme forms are easily 

 recognized ; the former by its tall stout stem, stout spines and 

 dark-green shining leaves ; the latter, by its low slender growth, 

 straight, slender spines, thinner leaves and fewer flowers ; but all 

 manner of intermediate forms occur wliich are very perplexing 

 and which seem to connect the two. 



Among our wild asters several interesting forms and varieties 

 have been collected. Some of the most notable of these variations 

 have been found to occur in the prenanthoid aster, Astei' jprenan- 

 thoides, a species which seems to have been regarded as quite 

 uniform and fixed in its characters, for only a single variety is 

 mentioned in the North American Flora. In the Catskill 

 mountain region it varies excessively in the size and shape of 

 the leaves, in the number and size of the heads and in their 

 arrangement in panicles and corymbs, in the color of the rays and 

 in the nurnber, length and direction of the branches. The 

 extreme forms, if observed separately, would scarcely be 

 thought to belong to the same species, but they are so connected 

 by intermediate forms that it is dffi cult to separate them. 

 A more extended account of these variations will be found in 

 another part of this Report. 



Scarcely less remarkable are the variations shown by the low 

 or dwarf goldenrod, Solidago humilis. This species, which I 

 have found in the Adirondack region only, occurs on the top of 

 the low rocky ridge on tbe north shore of Third lake, one of the 

 Fulton chain of lakes. This ridge is known as Bald mountain 

 Its summit is long and narrow and nearly destitute of trees. 

 Here and there the rock is covered with limited areas of thin soil 

 that has accumulated in the depressions and shallow cavities and 

 crevices. In this the dwarf goldenrod grows. The elevation, 

 temperature, degree of exposure, moisture and character of the 

 soil are all so uniform over the whole summit that much variation 

 in the character of any plant that might grow there would 

 scarcely be expected. Yet this goldenrod, in this limited area 

 and apparently exposed to the same external conditions, exhibits 

 here four well-marked and quite distinct forms. It certainly 

 looks as if variation does not always depend upon external cir- 

 cumstances. 



