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— 
- CURE re set ere ct — a pe 
3 La Tf d gia Te ge fee pup mere iM ; MM 
Ue pr y me 
ASTER MULTIFORMIS 369 
serrate, thickish with clumpy and one-sided aspect, one basal 
lobe being much longer than the other and one leaf broader than 
the other. Upper surface rough with sharp appressed acicular 
bristles. 
Between these larger radicals additional small subentire leaves 
are occasionally developed in luxuriant plants (the Lettuce-leaf 
stage of this species), of suboval or elliptical form, finally excavate- 
toothed or crenate-serr 
di nds leaf obicia, crenate, green, 34 in. long, with slight 
open sin 
Leaf- pan transitions when gradual include the following: 
Lower caulines sharp-serrate, with long slender petioles ; typical 
forms (all these leaves sometimes replaced by oval leaves without 
sinus), — 
. Ovate-acuminate, cordated narrowly, often 5 x 2 in. ; 
about i suc 
3. Ovate- acuminate, subcordate with shallow open sinus. 
3. Oval-acuminate, with rounded base 
Middle caulines sharp serrate, with short petiole: gradually 
or Kes much smaller ; types, 
. Ovate- lanceolate, with don taper base; 2 or 3 such, 
often 3 pi 11, in 
a Elliptic-lanceolate, with broad-wing base ; a few. 
Upper caulines sessile and serrulate ; typical shape, — 
6. Oblong-lanceolate, sessile by a broad or a narrow base; 
several so; sometimes 12, half of them axiles. 
Abrupt transitions of leaf-form or omission of some terms in 
the above series often occur 
Inflorescence flattish, shallow, loose, with its branches up- 
curved at a wide angle, in a somewhat eaten manner. 
Pedicels threadlike, greatly lengthened, often 1 i 
Heads usually 47, in. high, about 1 in. nt. nvolucre quite 
green in life; on drying and pressing remarkably acute and pale 
in aspect, triseriately chequered with large triangular green-tips. 
Bracts triform, only the lower really acute, these triangular- 
oblong, cymbiform, coriaceous, slightly puberulent. Middle and 
chief bracts oblong, diminished upward as if to form an acute apex 
but usually obtuse, with pale scarious margins. Inner bracts 
much more ee but still obtusish, the green reduced to a 
Narrow medial 
Rays 11— "hs medi about 13, narrow with entre end and 
retuse or erose-toothed within a central notch ; about 4$. in. long, 
deep violet, becoming pale. Intensity of this deep violet i is greatest 
in the first heads developed, or where in monocephalous shoots, a 
_ Single head receives the strength of the plant. 
