ERIGEKON BELLIDIFOLIUM. TOOK ROIUN's I'LANTAIN. 8/ 



" Cold l)lew Ihe bitlcr-biting north 

 Upon thy humble birth ; 

 Yet cheerfully thou ventuiest forth 

 Amid the storm, 

 Scarce reared above the earth 

 Thy tender form." 



The writer has gathered flowers of this daisy-Hkc species 

 among the snow in a late spring. The generic name, Erigeron, 

 according to Milne, is " from cr, the spring, and gcron, the Greek 

 name for senccio ; that is, a senecio which flowers in sprincr." It 

 may be observed that geron really means an old man. as its Lat- 

 inized form senccio does — from scncx, old, — and this is in allusion 

 to the copious white pappus often in globose masses like a head 

 of white silken hair. But Erigcrons do not all bloom in spring. 

 There is another species, Erigeroji PhiladelpJiiciim, which is \-cry 

 closely allied to this, one of the chief differences being that while 

 our present subject is often in bloom by the end of April, and is 

 rarely found in blossom after June, the E. PhiladclpJiiciini does 

 not commence to open its flowers till June, and often continues 

 till August at least in Pennsylvania. The creeping runners or 

 stolons (Fig. 3) also distinguish this species, the E. Philadcl- 

 pJiicinn always having a tufted root stock. While on this sub- 

 ject of botanical differences, it may be noted that in many 

 genera of composite plants it is very easy to distinguish one from 

 another by something in its aspect which is very hard to define 

 in words. The practised collector can almost always tell an 

 Erigcroii when he meets with it for the first time, the ver)- large 

 number of ray florets being in a great measure a character- 

 istic. Yet the botanist, when he comes to analyze the struc- 

 ture closely, finds it difficult to tell how to distinguish it from an 

 Aster, a Diplopappiis or some of the other neighboring genera. 

 Some of the species, indeed, have a double pappus, as in the last- 

 named genus, especially those which bloom in the fall season, 

 about the time when Diplopappus is generally found, and in these 

 cases the appendages of the style, shorter and blunter than in 

 Diplopapp7is, form all beyond the ''popular aspect" that is relied 



