192 COMPOSITjE. Aster. 



loose and similar. — A. adscendens, rar. Fremonti, Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 503. A. adscendensi 

 partly, Gray, Bot. Calif, i. .324. A. laxifolius, in part. Hook. Lond. Jour. Bot. vi. 160. — 

 Rocky Mountains, from Montana to Colorado and Utah, in wet ground below the alpine 

 region, west to the Cascade Mountains, lat. 49°, and along the Sierra ^Nevada, California. 



Var. Parlshii. A dubious form (connecting with the next species ?), with more im- 

 bricated and acute involucral bracts, their margins ciliolate. — Bear Valley in the San Ber- 

 nardino Jlountains, S. E. California, Parish. 

 A., occidentalis, Nutt. A span to a foot or more high, smooth and glabrous (except 

 some minute pubescence below the head), slender; smaller plants simple, bearing solitary 

 or few heads ; larger with slender branches and several or more numerous corymbose or 

 paniculate heads (ther.e 4 or 5 liues high) : leaves mainly linear and narrow; cauline 1 to 

 3 inches long and only a Hue or two wide, rarely lanceolate and larger, occasionally (in 

 Nuttall's specimens) bearing one or two salient lateral teeth or lobes; radical sometimes 

 lanceolate-spatulate with long tapering base : involucre of narrowly or subulate-linear acutisli 

 or acute thinnish loose bracts, obviously imbricated, of 2 or 3 lengths : rays light violet, 

 about 4 lines long. — Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 164 (TripoUiim occiderdale, Kutt. Trans. Am. Phil. 

 Soc. vii, 296), a small and weak alpine form, apparently of a species which at lower eleva- 

 tions becomes taller, rather freely branched, and in Oregon passes into a diffusely much 

 branched and paniculate polycephalous form. — Moist grouuds and along streams, Idaho to 

 Washington Terr., and along the Sierra Nevada, California, to Kern Co. (^1. cestivus, Roth- 

 rock in Wheeler Rep.) ; first coll. in Oregon by Douglas. 



Var. scabriusculus. More strict, rather rigid, probably in drier soil with more ex- 

 posure to aridity, stem and leaves scabrous-puberulent. — A. mstivus, Eaton in Bot. King 

 Exp, 141. — Mountains of JJ. E. Nevada and Utah, Watson, Wood. 



Var. intermedius. Ambiguous between A. occidentalis and a glabrous variety of 

 A Mcnziesii or of A- adscendens, a foot or two high, rather rigid, somewhat sj^aringly leafy, 

 with paniculate flowering branches ■ short outer bracts of the involucre often quite obtuse, 

 but narrower than in the two last-mentioned species : radical and sometimes cauline leaves 

 lanceolate. — Wet meadows, Falcon A''alley, &c., Washington Terr., iS id.sdorf, Howell, Bran- 

 degce, and N. California, Primjie. 



2. Tall (3 to 8 feet high) and branching, leafy to the top, paniculately polycephalous: Southwestern. 

 »A. hesperius. Resembles A. paniculatits and A. salicifolius of the East, equally variable, 

 from nearly glabrous and smooth to scabrous-pubesceut . leaves lanceolate, entire or the 

 larger with a few denticulations (2 to 5 inches long, 3 to 8 liues wide) : heads rather 

 crowded, 4 or 5 lines high : involucre of narrowly linear or more attenuate acute or gradu- 

 ally acuminate erect bracts, either unequal and imbricated, or with some loose and slender 

 herljaceous exterior ones which equal the inner : rays either white or violet, 3 or 4- lines 

 long. — Damp soil and along streams, S. Colorado and New Mexico to Arizona and S. Cali- 

 fornia, Has been variously taken for A. longifolius, Novi-Belgii, astivus, &c., and coll. by 

 Wriijht, G'-eene, liotlirock, Cleveland, Parish, Lemmon, &c. 



c. Involucre loose and foliaceous-bractcate at least some of the outer bracts herbaceous or foliaceous 

 to the base or nearly so, eqiialliu;;- the inner, and more or less enlarged, eitlier ascendina or 

 squarrose-spreading: the mvcjlucre of primary or early heads is more fcdiaceous; but, when the 

 heads are more numerous, the enlarged outer bracts are not rarclv wanting. 



1. Heads small. 

 A. Oreganus, Ndtt. Nearly glabrous: stem rather slender, 2 feet high, paniculately 

 branched at summit, or bearing several to many paniculate heads ; these about :i lines high : 

 leaves linear-lanceolate, entire (2 to 4 lines wide): outer and herbaceous involucral bracts 

 lanceolate, acute, not longer than the thiu and narrow inner ones (in some heads few or 

 none) : rays about 2 lines long, wliite or imrplish. — Torr & Grav, Fl. ii. 163, viz. Tripolixm 

 Oreijanum, Nutt, Trans. Am. Phil, Soc, \ii. 296, on small and hardlv develo])ed specimens. 

 A. simpler and perhaps A. carneus, Eaton in Bot. King Exp, 1. >-. .1 h.nfotius, in part. Hook. 

 Lond Jour, Bot vi. 240, not Nees, — Wet banks «{ streams and boggy meadows, Idaho and 

 N. Nevada to Oregon and Washington Terr, ; probably also N. California. 



2. Heads middle-sized or large : rays violet or purple. (Species confluent.) 

 A. Douglasii, Lixi>r Smootli, glabrous or nearly so : stems 2 or 3 feet high, with erect 

 or ascending branches, bearing several or numerous paniculate heads ; these 5 or 6 lines 



