18 AstTER HIsTorY 
the present, would recognize it as the genus Aster of his personal 
acquaintance. But even yet most of the species did not bear 
binomial names, nor was a definite generic description evolved ; 
both of these achievements were the work of Linnaeus, 1737 and 
1783. Succeeding botanists have since cut away a third of Lin- 
naeus’ 30 species, but by means of previous authorities he cites, 
we may trace the history not only of their future but of their 
past. 
American Species.—A great influx of American species formed 
the next feature of Aster history. Each new edition of Linnaeus’ Spe- 
cies plantarum became a new milestone in its progress, and conspicu- 
ous additions were made by Clayton and Gronovius, 1762 and earlier, 
by Lamarck 1783,by Aiton’s Hortus Kewensis 1789, by Willdenow 
1804, and Nees 1818, with whom the species of Aster reached 130, 
after which we may consider the present period to begin, charac- 
terized by strong tendency to segregation of numerous small bodies 
of long-known Aster species as separate genera. 
To recapitulate, the following great epochal divisions in Aster 
history may therefore be roughly blocked out before proceeding 
to further detail : 
1. The Early or nebulous phase, onward from before Theo- 
phrastus, about 320 B.C., or from Hippocrates, perhaps a hundred 
years earlier. : 
Il. The Dioscoridean period, dominated by Dioscorides’ one 
description, for about A.D. 65-1576, to Clusius and Lobel and to 
the death of Matthioli, the great commentator on Dioscorides ; 
the period of the monotypic Aster. 
Il. The Clusian or agglutinative period, 1576-1720, with rec- 
ea ee A eT ee eR eet aoe REM ney is FF! 
Sy Pog tS: ee ee a eS ee eee 
4 
ognition by Clusius and Lobel, preceded by Gesner and Pena, of : 
new species, chiefly European, but confused with yellow-rayed 
inuloid and other forms. Here the history of the genus Aster — 
ceases to be the history of a single species, a history running 
through ages as a single thread ; and henceforward its details are 
best followed under the species affected. 
IV. The Linnaean period for the genus Aster dominated by 
the successive editions of Linnaeus’ Species plantarum ; beginning 
with Vaillant’s limitation of the genus, 1720, by exclusion of yel- 
low-rayed species ; its binomial names dating from Linnaeus, 1753 + 
