402 DESCRIPTION OF ASTERS; MACROPHYLLI 
84. ASTER MIRABILIS T. & G. 
Small plants with oval crenate leaf-form, hispid on both sur- 
faces and sometimes spinulosely so above, with loosely subremote 
heads, and strongly squarrose broad-tipped lingual green bracts. 
Name, unexplained ; probably from its uniting squarrose bracts like those of 
A, spectabilis with Biotian leaf-characters. 
Fic. 108, ages = nape by Prof. Lewis Reeve Gibbes at Columbia, 
S. C., 1835, now in the Gibbes herb, at N. Y. Bot. Gard.; 4, a radical preserved on same 
sheet. 
. mirabilis Torr. and Gray, in Fl. N. Am., 2: 165 (1841), with original 
description : ( with the prefatory remark that the species reached the authors too late for 
insertion in its proper gus. which should stand as the first species ** in section Calli- 
astrum, before 4, radula’ 
130 mirabilis : dete scabrous; stem simple, sparingly woe abi 
paniculate at the summit ; leaves I. strigose-scabrous above ; the lowest (and ra 
cal?) abruptly narrowed into a petiole ; the others sessile, rather acute ; those of n 
branches small, roundish; involucre ies mispherical, shorter than the disk ; the scales 
regularly rip in 4-5 unequal series, oblong-linear, with conspicuous squarrose- 
recurved obtuse herbaceous tips; rays (about zm elongated ; achenia linear, scarcely 
cae abe ponie glabrous (minutely hairy under a lens when yon striate. 
Columbia, S. C. (proba ably in dry soil), Professor Gibbes ! 
Stem more in height, apparently simple, clothed n a close and 
rather rough pubescence, which i is scarcely if at all viscid, sparingly branched towards 
e summit ; the branches bearing solitary or Td scattered heads, or sometimes 4 Or 5 
heads, somewhat crowded at the summit. ves thickish when old, rather strongly 
pinnately veined and more or less Excel all serrate from the base to the apex 
with close and short mucronate teeth ; the lower surface less scabrous and more pubes- 
cent than the upper, often somewhat hoary ; the cauline 1—3 in. long, uniformly ovate, 
but the upper gradually ae in size, all but the lowermost closely sessile, not 
clasping ; those of the branches similar but much smaller, obtuse, and nearly round ; 
the lowest cauline eis narrowed into a margined petiole, or rarely almost cordate ; 
the proper radical leaves wanting. oS nearly as large as in 4. spectabilis, sabe 
bose. Involucre minutely pubescent ; the scales between chartaceous and coriaceous 
in texture, whitish, closely ae with rather short, but conspicuous, squarrose or 
reflexed herbaceous tips. Rays large, thrice the length of the involucre, blue or violet. 
chenia narrow and slender, — somewhat shorter than the rather rigid 
(brownish or ferruginous) gius. ual pappus ; the innermost bristles of which are mani- 
festly thickened towards the a Appe dde of the style subulate-lanceolate, and 
at length recurved or reflexed, as in Biotia [within which seems its proper position]. 
— This very interesting species furnishes additional evidence of the propriety of 
reuniting Biotia with Aster; being exactly intermediate in character and appearance 
between that group and our subgenus Calliastrum. We have received it only from Pro- 
: fessor Gibbes of Charleston, South Carolina, who collected it at Columbia in the year 
1835. 
The Biotia pepe a plant of unknown origin i sentis in the European 
gardens, which is to have a squarrose involucre, has (fide descr. Nees) oblong- 
lanceolate and lube clasping upper leaves, a very compound corymb, glutinous pubes- 
coa. 
