Aster. COMPOSITE. 185 



ID Ptoc. Am. Ac3.d. xvi. 99. — Rocky islands and sl]ore«, northern part of Lake Champlain, 

 Prinfjle, K. Brainard. 



•*—-*— -i^ Involucre of the numerous small and racemostly disposed heads icith squnrvose or at 

 least sprtadiny herbaceous tips to the neU imbricated unequal bracts, tliese tip~ obtuse or merely 

 mucronate-apiculate : cauliue leaves -mall, all linear and entire, not at all or scarcely naiToived 

 at the abrupt clostly ses-ile or panly clasping ba-e; akeoes canescent-hirsute : herbage with 

 somewhat cinereous or hirteUous pubescence. — Multiflui i. 



++ Rays amethj-stine-violet or purple: leaves not rigid. 

 A. amethystinus, Xutt. C'inereously pnberulent or the stems hirsntnlons, 2 to 5 feet 

 high, paniculately much branched: heads 3 lines high: tips of involucral bracts merely 

 spreading, acntish, not ciliate: rays ratlier nnmeruus, .3 lines long. — Trans. Am. PhiJ. >nr. 

 , (n. ser.) vii. 294; Torr. i (Iray, Fl. ii. 144; Gray, Man. ed. 5, 234. — Rather low gronnd.s, 

 E. Jlassachusetts to Illinois and Iowa. This has been cnlt. in European gardens under the 

 names of .1. jjilugim and Boitoniensis. It has much the habit of .1. oUongifoUus, but is desti- 

 tute of \ iscidity and aroma. 



-)H- -i-r Rays white, rarely bluish or purple-tinged. 

 " A. multiflorus. Ait. Low (a foot or two high), bushy-branched, cinereous or green : leaves 

 rigid, scabrous- or hispidnlous-ciliate ; uppermost of the liranchlets passing into involucral 

 bracts ; these mostly with obtuse tips: heads in the ordinary forms little over 2 (at most 3) 

 lines long, and with only 10 to 15 or 20 rays. — Kew. iii. 203 : WiUd. S).ec. iii. 2U27 ; Torr. & 

 Gray. Fl. ii. 124, with var. stricticaulis, a slender strict form of the Xortli. .1 . erU-oidfs^ dumi'sus. 

 DiD. Elth. t. 36. .4. ericoides, L. spec, as to syn. Dill. ; ilichx. Fl. ii. 113; >rlik Handb. 

 t. 245, & (var. multiflorus) Pers. .'>yii. ii. 443. ..1. fjjiatui, MnM. in A\'illd. Spec. iii. 2(i27. 

 A. scopariii.<. DC. Pr^idr. t. 242, a rather strict slender-leaved Texan form. A. hebecladus, 

 DC- 1. c, a very small-leaved hirtell(.ms Texano-Arizonian form. — Dry or sterile ground, 

 Canada to Georgia and Texas, common throughout .Atlantic States, southwest to Arizona, 

 northwest to Sa>katchewau and Brit. Columbia, (ilex.) The most wide-spread .-]jecies. 

 ■' A. commutatus. A foot or so high, with divergent branches heads more scattered and 

 twice or even thrice the size of those of -1. nitihiji"r!i-! (3 or 4 lines high and broad): rays 

 20 to 30 ; otherwise nearly as the preceding. — .1. multiflorus, var. commutnins, Torr. & Gray, 

 1. c , exd. svn. A. biennis, Torr. Ann. Lye. X. Y., at least mainly. A. ramulosus, var. incano- 

 jnlosus, Liiidl. in DC. Prodr. 1. c. & Hook. Fl. ii. 12. — Plains and river-hanks, Dakota and 

 Saslcatchewan, to Utah and E. iiregtm. Seems to pass into the preceding on one hand, and 

 into A. adscendens on the other. 

 A. falcatUS, Lindl. !Mnch like a strict and simple-stemmed A. multijiorus, perhaps a high 

 northern form of it : leaves all narrowly linear, glabrate or sparingly and minutely (and the 

 stem more obviously) pubescent with soft somewhat appressed hairs: involucre broader, 

 glabrous ; its bracts tliinner and looser ; outer herbaceons to near tlie base and as long as the 

 attenuate innermost. — Torr & Gray, Fl. ii. 126. A./alcatus & A. raiii»iu:>ui (a? to the type), 

 LindL in DC. Prodr. v. 241, 243, i Hook. Fl. v.. 12 — Subarctic America, from Cumberland 

 House to Fort Franldin, near the Arctic Circle and Arctic cast. Richardson. 

 ^_ j_ 4_ j_ Involucre of the small (2 or 3 hnes high) and numerous heads nearly of the 

 BderojJ'iilt-i, pluri:erial; the bracts not coriacenus. reL.'ularly and closely imbricated (outer suc- 

 ccssivclv' shorter), smooth and glabrous, mostly whitish below and with definite short Lrreen 

 tips, these not spreading: stems usually slender and not very tall; the branches divergent or di- 

 varicate (except in A. racemosus), and racemosely branched or racemosely capituhferous; leaves 

 from lanceolate to subulate, not cinereous nor more than minutely scabrous, commonly spread- 

 ing: all Atlantic species. — Dlvergentes. 

 -K- Heads more scattered and singly terminating the racemose or compound-paniculate minutely 

 foliose slender branches. 

 A. dumosus, L. :\I..stly quite glabrous and sm.jijth, 1 to 3 feet high : leaves all entire and 

 obtuse, commonly reflexed or widely spreading ; the cauline linear (1 to 3 inches long and as 

 many lines wide), of rather firm texture ; those of branches and branchlets gradually smaller 

 and "shorter; ultimate ones reduced to minute bracts . involucre campaunlate or shurt-turbi- 

 nate (2 or 3 lines long), w-ell imbricated and with very definite and broadish oral or oblung 

 green tips to the obnise or sumetinies barely acutish bracts rays from violet to nearly 

 white 2 lines long. — Spec. ii. S73 (with syn. mainly) ; Ait. Kew. iii. 202 ; Torr. & Gra^', Fl, 



