White to Green and Brown Flowers 195 



These charming little Asters, with their white rays and 

 yellow centres, are quite unmistakable, and though each in- 

 dividual flower is small, yet they grow in such large densely- 

 flowered wands that they present a very handsome appear- 

 ance. The stiff narrow leaves grow all the way up the 

 stalks among the blossoms. The flower is usually found in 

 very dry sandy places. 



Aster alpinus, or Alpine Aster, is another species very 

 abundant in the mountains. It grows at great altitudes and 

 has fluffy whitish leaves and white or pale pink flowers. 



FERN-LEAVED FLEABANE 



Erigeron compositus. Composite Family 



Stems: short, densely leafy. Leaves: fan-shaped in outline, parted 

 into linear spatulate lobes on long petioles; herbage hirsute and rather 

 viscidulons. Flowers: rays forty to sixty, white; disk-flowers yellow. 



This Fleabane is very like a large common daisy, for it 

 has many white rays and a big yellow centre. Most of its 

 leaves grow out from the base, and are much cut and quite 

 fern-like. It is found at an altitude of 7000 feet, and espe- 

 cially along the edge of glacial streams, though it grows 

 also on the lower alpine meadows. 



The most conspicuous difference between Asters and 

 Fleabanes is that the latter have very numerous narrow rays, 

 while the rays of the former are slightly broader and much 

 fewer in number. 



Erigeron mnltifidus, or Daisy Fleabane, has numerous 

 slender hairy stems and leaves crowded on the crowns of 

 the caudex, twice-ternately parted into narrow lobes. The 

 flowers are solitary at the ends of the nearly leafless stems ; 

 they are usually white, but occasionally violet. 



Erigeron melanocephalus, or Black-woolly Fleabane, has 



