Tall Arh Ef 
; 
A 
a 
We 
2 
in 
ASTER COMMIXTUS 401 
mixta Nees ast. 142. An Æ. gee Ta dict. 37, p- 487? Ligulæ lilacinæ. 
(v. s. c. olim in hort. angl. sub nom. 4. ti.) 
Other botanical gardens began to cultivate somewhat similar 
plants under the name of commixta, as that of St. Petersburg, a 
specimen from which at Kew, “ Eurybia commixta, Hort. Petrop," 
was seen by Gray and likened by him to his representative 
(figured supra, p. 302) from Nees’ herbarium of A. macrophyllus ; 
probably on account of the widespread branching, coarse rough 
texture and a non-cordate radical; Gray at one time also query- 
ing if this particular macrophyllus specimen of Nees was not the 
same with DeCandolle's Azotia commixta, at a later time on pub- 
lishing the Synoptical Flora, definitely adopting this conclusion 
(though afterward reconsidering it), and also making this com- 
mixta a synonym for his A. Herveyi. Gray's treatment as 
printed Syn. Fl. 175, is in the following words under A. Herveyi - 
“ Biotia commixta DC. Prodr. v. 265 (excl. syn.?) isa vee cultivated form of 
this, which has long been in the gardens, of unknown origin.’ 
Probably Gray's union of Biotia commixta DC. with his A. 
Herveyi (which should have invalidated his name A. Herveyz, had 
it been substantiated) was largely due to Gray’s field acquaintance 
with A. /Zervey? as a noncordate species, and as the only non- 
cordate Aster species of Biotian affinity which he recognized. So 
he sought to identify with it the European Biotian plants with the 
non-cordate character. But A. Herveyi was thin, extremely so, 
and the European plants were thick-leaved and broader; hence 
his designating them as a form with “ robust ” habit. 
Taking either Nees’ description or Bernhardi’s specimens of 
A. commixtus, several distinctions appear which abundantly separate 
it from A. Herveyi, although the spreading inflorescence has much 
similarity ; distinctions including these; A. commixtus has much 
thicker leaves, much coarser teeth, much rougher surface, much 
acuter bracts, etc. 
Confusion was early increased by the cultivation of a dissimilar 
broad-leaved “southern form” of A. radula Ait. in the Berlin 
Garden in 1839 as Biotia commixta var. stricta ; as noted by Gray, 
Syn. Fl. 
Pesto d the original 4. commixtus of Nees’ garden at Bonn 
was itself a southern form ; for one specimen according well with 
Nees’ character was discovered by Roland M. Harper in Georgia 
in 1901. 
fae plants of this obscure species should be searched for 
further in that region 
** Glands nniy or quite absent; bracts broad, subtruncate. 
