Victorian Plants. 299 



ASTER. 



1354. Quite herbaceous. 



Alpine tufted plant; stems branchless; leaves mostly radical, 

 from broad -linear to elongate - lanceolar, recurved or 

 revolute along the margin, clasping with broad base, 

 beset with a silvery-silklike finally deciduous vestiture 

 above and with a velvetlike indument underneath ; 

 stem-leaves much shortened or bract-like ; flower-headlets 

 large, singly terminal ; involucral bracts acute ; radiating 

 expansions of marginal flowers white or slightly purplish ; 

 fruits beset with silk -like vestiture. A, Celmisia. 



Nearly or fully shrubby 1355 



1355. Leaves opposite or axillary-clustered ... 1356 

 Leaves scattered 1365 



1356. Leaves opposite, large ... 1357 

 Leaves clustered, small ... ... ... 1359 



1357. Leaves comparatively narrow. 



Alpine shrub, evergreen and rather tall ; leaves very firm, 

 elongated, from broad-linear to narrowly lanceolar-ellip- 

 tical, entire, slightly recurved along the margin, glabrous 

 above, densely beset with silk-like greyish vestiture 

 beneath ; headlets of flowers rather small, on slender 

 stalks in corymbous or trichotomous panicles ; floral ray 

 whitish ; fruits glabrous. A. alpicola. 



Leaves comparatively broad ... ... ... ... 1358 



1358. Leaves densely beset with brownish velvet-like 



vestiture underneath. 



An alpine or sub-alpine shrub, rather tall ; leaves firm, from 

 elliptical to almost ovate, flat, entire, above glabrous, the 

 vestiture beneath without lustre ; headlets of flowers in 

 corymbous panicles ; floral ray white ; fruits invested 

 with short hairlets. A. megalophyllus. 



Leaves thinly beset with whitish silk-like vestiture 

 underneath. 



Finally tall ; leaves of thin texture, from lanceolar to 

 elliptical, entire, flat, sticky ; headlets of flowers rather 

 small, in cymous panicles ; flowers comparatively few 

 within each involucre ; corollas of central flowers pale ; 

 ray reduced to four or fewer expansions, white or violet- 

 coloured ; fruits nearly glabrous. A. visGOSUS. 



