276 The Botanical Gazette. [May, 
tardiflorus, founded entirely on specimens cultivated in the 
Upsal garden, is confidently identified with a low form of 
A, patulus Lam.” And in the Gray herbarium there are Eu- 
ropean garden specimens which Dr. Gray has matched with 
the Linnaean sheets of A. tardiflorus, and which, at the same 
time, are not distinguishable from authentic specimens of A. 
patulus from the Paris garden. But in the Synoptical Flora 
of North America there is an attempt to distinguish the two 
Species on the two characters in which the original descrip- 
tions did not coincide. Namely, 4. tardifforus is described as 
having leaves auriculate at base and essentially equal involucral 
bracts, with some of the outer foliaceous, while the leaves of 
A, patulus are described as attenuated at the base, and the 
involucral bracts more or less unequal, Various specimens, 
however, show that these characters are not permanent; there 
are well authenticated plants of A. patulus with leaves slightly 
auriculate and with involucral bracts subequal as in A. tardi- 
orus and vice versa. In fact it seems that by attempting to 
keep these species apart we are only making confusion. — 
The obscurity surrounding the Linnaean plant, as recently 
understood, and its ascribed characters of auriculate leaves 
and of outer foliaceous bracts have allowed many specimens of 
A. Novi-Belgii, and a few plants of A. puntceus to be placed 
with A. tardifiorus. Aster tardiflorus as a rule is a species Very 
distinct from both 4. Novi-Belgii and A. puntceus, though 
there are some forms which show a close relationship to those 
Species. In general habit, however, the typical plant sus” 
gests 4. prenanthoides, or species of the sub-genus HETER™ 
PHYLLI (particularly 4. Lindleyanus) and it apparently inter 
grades wit 
It is with the hope to throw some clearing light upom . 
confusion which has prevailed that I have given this outline 
of the history of these plants and append the following 4 
scriptions. 
ASTER TARDIFLORUS L.—A rather slender plant from i 
Span to three feet high, bearing few heads in a terminal cy 
or many in a leafy open inflorescence: stems ‘ 
slightly hirsute above, or even white-villous in som dical 
eo 
