518 COMPOSITAE (COMPOSITE FAMILY) 



33. Aster meritus A. Nels. Bot. Gaz. 37: 268. 1904. Stems 1-several 

 from each of the many crowns of the woody rootstocks, the tufted stems 

 suberect or more usually widely spreading and forming a mat 5-10 dm. across, 

 2-4 dm. long, green but under a lens sparsely pubescent, simple or branched, 

 leafy throughout: leaves oblong or sometimes elliptic, 3-7 cm. long, subacute, 

 entire or obscurely crenulate-serrate, glabrous above, often sparingly and 

 minutely ciliolate-scabrous below and on the margins: heads several to nu- 

 merous, usually in a crowded corymbose leafy cyme, turbinate-campanulate; 

 involucral bracts broadly linear, in 3-4 rows, subacute or obtuse, erect, 

 purple- tipped and margined, delicately ciliate, sometimes puberulent (as are 

 the peduncles and pedicels): rays mostly fewer than 15, purple or violet: 

 pappus brownish. (A. Richardsonii Spreng. as to our range.) Northern 

 Wyoming to Idaho and Montana. 



34. Aster proximus Greene, Pitt. 4: 220. 1900. With vegetative characteris- 

 tics of A. laetevirens (See no. 27) but of a deeper green, the foliage more ampliate 

 and spreading, all the leaves quite entire: inflorescence more truly paniculate 

 and open: involucres campanulate; the outer bracts wholly herbaceous and 

 spreading, the green tips of even the innermost also spreading, all cuspi- 

 dately acute: rays 35 or more, large and showy, flesh-color to rose-purple. 

 Northern Wyoming; probably in Montana and Idaho. 



35. Aster apricus (Gray) Rydb. Mem. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 1: 396. 1900. 

 Low, usually less than 2 dm. high, the stems clustered, from tufted rootstocks; 

 the flowering branches mostly few, suberect, sparsely leaved: lower stem 

 leaves comparatively ample, thickish, oblong, broadly lanceolate or spatu- 

 late, tapering into winged petioles with clasping base: heads from solitary 

 to several; the bracts all alike, somewhat spatulate-linear, obtuse or acutish: 

 rays "deep blue-violet and reddish-purple intermixed." (A. incertus A. Nels. 

 1. c. 269.) In the higher mountains; Colorado to Montana. 



36. Aster fulcratus Greene, Pitt. 4: 217. 1900. Stems low, slender, de- 

 cumbent, numerous, from a loose but extensive system of slender horizontal 

 rootstocks and partly subterranean stolons: the leaves terminating the latter 

 small and obovate to spatulate-oblong; those of the red-purple, white- 

 puberulent proper stems linear and lance-linear, 5-10 cm. long, 1-nerved, all 

 entire and glabrous: heads large, solitary at the ends of the smaller stems, 

 few and racemose or subcorymbose on the taller stems, but these only 3 dm. 

 high; involucres turbinate but broadly so; the bracts few and little imbricated, 

 almost wholly herbaceous, the outer 12-25 mm. long, linear, entire, acute, 

 wholly glabrous as are also the short, spatulate-linear inner ones: rays 15-20, 

 16-18 mm. long, rich rose-purple or paler and roseate-lilac. In the moun- 

 tains; southern Colorado. 



37. Aster fronde us (Gray) Greene, Proc. Acad. Sci. Phila. 551. 1895. Stems 

 simple or with sparing erect flowering branches, sparsely leaved: leaves com- 

 paratively ample, 8-12 cm. long; the lower tapering into winged petioles; 

 the upper often with clasping base: heads solitary or few, naked-pedunculate, 

 broad; inyolucral bracts linear-lanceolate, loose and not imbricate, all equal- 

 ing the disk, occasionally the outermost broader and leaf-like. A.foliaceus 

 principally; typical A. foliaceus Lindl. does not occur in this range. (A. 

 glastifolius Greene, 1. c. 218.) Subalpine in the Rocky Mountains, and west- 



The relationship and validity of the following are not yet clear: A. distichophyttus, 

 A. epithamaeus, A. violaceus Greene, Pitt. 4: 213, 217, and 218, respectively. 



23. MACHAERANTHERA Nees. 



Annual, biennial, or perennial branched herbs, with leafy stems, alternate, 

 entire, serrate, or pinnatifid leaves, the teeth or lobes usually bristle-tipped, 

 and large heads of both tubular and radiate flowers. Involucre of numerous 

 series of imbricated canescent or glandular bracts with herbaceous or folia- 

 ceous spreading or reflexed tips. Receptacle alveolate, the alveoli usually 



