ASTERACE.33. 179 



lowest leaves oblanceolate-spatulate, few- toothed; upper linear entire. — 

 At Crystal Springs, San Mateo Co., and southward. 



2. C. obovata, Benth. Stems fewer, erect or ascending, hoary, as also 

 the obovate or spatulate obtuse leaves which are serrate above; those of 

 the branches oblong or narrower : heads 1 in. broad or more, including 

 the purple rays. — Sandy hills from Lake Merced to Humboldt Co., 

 plentiful on Point Eeyes. 



17. ASTER, Tourn. Leafy-stemmed autumnal herbs with panicled 

 or somewhat corymbose heads. Involucre hemispherical to campanulate, 

 of several series of unequal imbricate bracts with herbaceous tips. Bays 

 many, not very narrow, white, pinkish, or bluish. Disk-corollas yellow 

 changing to red-purple; tube slender; limb funnelform. Style-append- 

 ages from triangular-lanceolate to slender-subulate. Aohenes compressed. 

 Pappus copious, dull- white, or rarely more deeply colored, scabrous. 



* Perennials ; inflorescence corymbose. 



1. A. radnlinns, Gray. Stoutish, roughish-pubescent, 1 ft. high or 

 more, usually bearing an open corymb of middle-sized heads: leaves 

 rigid, obovate-oblong, acute, sharply serrate above, tapering to a narrow 

 entire base, scabrous both sides: involucre obconic, 4 — 5 lines long: 

 bracts rigid, appressed, acutish or mucronate, the tips green: rays white; 

 disk-corollas becoming red: achenes minutely pubescent; pappus rather 

 rigid. — Borders of woods and thickets; early-flowering. July — Sept. 



* * Perennials; paniculate or racemose. 



2. A. Menziesii, Lindl. Strictly erect, 2 ft. high, usually simple and 

 very leafy up to the mostly simply racemose or racemose-paniculate inflor- 

 escence, the whole plant cinereously and roughly pubescent: leaves 

 oblong-lanceolate, acute, 1—3 in. long, remotely serrate or entire, sessile 

 by abroad auriculate-clasping base: involucre broadly turbinate, ^ in. 

 high; bracts somewhat spatulate, well imbricated, the broad green tips 

 obtuse: rays light violet, rather short. — Vaca Mountains, Jepson, and 

 southward. Sept. — Dec. 



3. A. invennstus. Stout stems 2 ft. long or more, ascending from a 

 decumbent base; herbage cinereous with scabrous and short-hirsute 

 pubescence: lower cauline leaves lanceolate-spatulate, 2 — 3 in. long, 

 with remote and slight serratures: heads very numerous in an ample 

 cymose panicle; involucres nearly hemispherical, % i°- high* the almost 

 wholly green-herbaceous very obtuse spatulate-linear bracts in rather 

 few ranks; rays dull pale purplish.— Collected only by the author, and 

 in the upper part of Napa Valley, near Calistoga, August, 1888. 



4. A. Chilensis, Nees. Erect, stoutish, 2—4 ft. high, glabrous or 

 somewhat hirsute, the stem occasionally with strongly hirsute lines: 



