518 COMPOSITAE (composite family) 



33. Aster meritus A. Nels. Bot. Gaz. 37: 268.1904. Stems 1-several 

 from each of the many crowns of the woody rootstocks, the tufted stems 

 suberect or more usually widely spreading and forming a mat 5-10 dm. aoroSs, 

 2— i dm. long, green but under a lens sparsely pubescent, simple or brancihed, 

 leafy throughout: leaves oblong or sometimes elliptic, 3-7 cm. long, subacute, 

 entire or obscurely crenulate-serrate, glabrous above, often sparingly and 

 minutely ciliolate-scabrous' below and on the margins: heads- severkl to nu- 

 merous, usually in a crowded corymbose leafy cyme, turbinate-campanulate; 

 involucral bracts broadly linear, in 3-^ rows, subacute or obtuse) ferect, 

 purple-tipped and margined, delicately ciliate, sometimes puberulent i (as are 

 •the peduncles and pedicels): rays mostly fewer than 15, purple or violet: 

 pappus brownish. {A. Bichardsonii Spreng. as to our range.) — ^Northern 

 Wyoming to Idaho and Montana. ' i : i pj-ulfA ' i 



_ 34. Aster prozimUs Greene, Pitt. 4: 220. 1900. With vegetative characteris- 

 tics of A . laetevirem (See no. 27) but of a deeper green, the foliage more aitnpliate 

 and spreading, all the leaves quite entire: inflorescence more truly paniculate 

 and oj)en: involucres campanulate; the outer bracts' wholly herbaceous' and 

 spreading, the green tips of even the innermost also spreading, all cuspi- 

 dately acute: rays 35 or more, large and showyy flesh-color to rose-purple. — 

 Northern Wyoming; probably in Montana and Idaho. ■ ■ 



35. Aster apricus (Gray) Rydb. Mem. N. Y. Bot. Gard.,1: 396. 1900. 

 Low, usually less thah 2 dm. high, the stems clustered, from tufted rootstocks; 

 the flowering branches mostly fewji' suberect,' sparsely leaved; lower stem 

 ■leaves' comparatively ample, thickish, oblong, broadly lanceolate or spatu- 

 late, tapering into winged petioles with clasping base: heads from i solitary 

 to 'several;' the bracts all alike; somewhat spatulate-linear, obtuse or aoutish: 

 rays "deep blue- violet and reddish-purple intermixed.','. , {A. incertu& A.'Hels. 

 1. c. 269.)— In the higher mountains; Colorado to Montana. -i 



' 36. Aster fulcratus Greene, Pitt. 4: 217. 1900. Stems low, slender,; de- 

 cumbent, numerous, from a loose but extensive system of slender horizontal 

 rootstocks and partly subterranean stolons: the leaves terminating: the latter 

 small and obovate to spatulate-oblong; I those of the. red-purple; (white- 

 puberulent proper stems linear and lance-linear, 5-10 cm^ long, 1-nerved, all 

 entire and glabrous: heads large, solitary at: the ends of thiei smaller stems, 

 few and racemose or subcorymbose on the taller stems, but these, only 3 dm. 

 high; involucres turbinate but broadly so; the bracts few and little imbricated, 

 almost wholly herbaceous, the outer 12-25 mm. long, i linear, entire, acute, 

 wholly glabrous as are also. the short,' spatulate-linear inner ones: rays 15-20, 

 16-18 mm. long, rich rose-purple or paler and roseate-lilac— ^Iri (the moun- 

 tains; southern Colorado: I , . r 'T, ■ ,t' \-.,\-s\ 



"37. Aster frondeus (Gray) Greene, Proc. Acad. Sci. Phila. 551- 1895.. Stems 

 simple or with sparing erect flowering branches,' sparsely leaved: leaves com- 

 paratively ample, 8-12 cm. long; the lower tapering into -winged petioles; 

 the upper often with clasping base: heads solitary lor f6w,.paked-5)edmiculate, 

 broad; involucral bracts linear-lanceolate, loose and not imbricate, all equal- 

 ing the disk, occasionally the outermost broader and leaf-like/ .4 i/oKoceus 

 principally; typical A. foliacenis LindL does not occur in this i&nge. . \A. 

 glastifolius Greene, 1. c. 218.) — Subalpine in the Rocky Mountains, and west- 

 ward. ■ ' 



The TelationBhip 'and validity of the fqllQwing are not yet clear: A., ditpuJiopkyOut, 

 A. spUhamaem, A. p^lficeits Greene, Ktt. 4: 213, 217, and 218, reapectively.! 



23. MACHAERANTHERA Nees. 



Annual, biennial, or perennial branched herbs,! with leafy stems, altejmate, 

 entire, serrate, or pinnatifid' leaves, the teeth on lobes, usually bristlcTtipped, 

 and large heads of both tubular and radiate flowers. Involucre. of numerous 

 series of imbricated canescent or glandular bracts with herbaceous or f olia- 

 ceous spreadiner or reflexed tips. Receptacle alveolate, the alveoli lUSually 



