184 COMPOSITE. Aster. 



what serrate or serrulate ; upper ones an inch or two long ; lowest and radical spatulate- 

 lanceolate and tapering into a winged petiole : heads much smaller than in preceding, 

 numerous : rays 4 or 5 lines long, violet. — Enum. ii. 884 ; Nees, Ast. 121 (excl. £ ■?) ; Lindl. 

 Bot. Reg. t. 1619. A. elegans, Hort. Par. 1814, not Willd. — North America, received by 

 Willdenow from Muhlenberg. An indigenous specimen from Pennsylvania, Minn, in 

 herb. Cosson. This and perhaps that of N. Carolina, Schweinitz in herb. Ell. (now lost), 

 and Arkansas, Harvey, seem to be the only indigenous ' ones seen. 



4— +- Involucre of the small or barely middle-sized and paniculately or racemosely disposed 

 heads (3 or 4 lines high) pluriserially imbricated ; its bracts rather rigid, narrow, with subulate 

 or acute green nearly erect tips: rays white, sometimes turning purplish or violaceous: leaves 

 mostly narrow and entire, narrowed at base : akenes minutely pubescent. — Ericoidei. 



++ Heads disposed to be corymbosely or open-paniculate on erect branches: involucre nearly 

 hemispherical : rays numerous, bright white, disposed to turn rose-purplish, 4 lines long. 



A. Porteri, Gray. A foot or less high, glabrous and smooth (except hirsute ciliation of 

 lowest leaves), either simple or branching above, bearing several or numerous thyrsoidly or 

 corymbosely disposed heads : leaves linear or lower spatulate-linear (2 to 4 inches long, 1 to 

 3 lines wide), radical spatulate: heads broad: involucral bracts linear-subulate; outer little 

 shorter than inner. — Proc. Am. Acad. xvi. 99. A. ericoides, var. 1 Proc. Acad. Philad. 

 1863, 64. A. ericoides, var. strictus, Porter & Coult. El. Colorad. 56. — Common in the 

 Colorado Rocky Mountains at middle elevations, Fremont, Parry, Hall & Harbour, &c. 



A. polyph^Hus, Willd. Mostly tall (4 or 5 feet high), with virgate branches, glabrous : 

 cauline leaves narrowly lanceolate or linear (4 or 5 inches long, quarter to half inch wide) ; 

 those of flowering branchlets small and subulate-linear : heads paniculate (4 lines high) : 

 involucral bracts lanceolate-subulate, outer successively shorter. — Enum. 888 ; Spreng. Syst. 

 iii. 536. A. Americanus Belviderefolius , &c, Pluk. Aim. t. 78, f . 5 ? A. tenuifolius, Nees, Ast. 

 119, in part; Torr. & Gray, El. ii. 132, in part. — N. Vermont to Wisconsin, south to Penn. 

 and N Carolina. Showy in cultivation, flowering much earlier than A. ericoides. 



++ ++ Heads disposed to be racemose along spreading branches or branchlets : rays 15-25, and 

 smaller, bright white, rarely purplish-tinged. 



A. ericoides, L. Glabrous or nearly so in the typical form (but with hirsute varieties), 

 rather rigid, a foot to a yard high, with lateral branches spreading or ascending and com- 

 monly unilaterally capituliferbus : radical leaves oblanceolate and spatulate, often sparingly 

 serrate ; cauline narrowly lanceolate or linear and narrowed at both ends, entire ; those of 

 the branches and branchlets gradually diminished to setaceous-subulate : heads usually 

 3 lines high : tips of the involucral bracts somewhat abruptly subulate-acute or acuminate 

 from a rigid or coriaceous base : akenes little compressed, scarcely nerved. — Spec. ii. 875 

 (specimen in herb, an attenuate cultivated form, not of syn. Dill. & Gronov., which are of 

 A. multiftorus) ; Ait. Kew. iii. 202; Spreng. Syst. iii. 531 ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 123; Gray, 

 Proc. Am. Acad. xvi. 165, not of Lam. nor Michx. A. tenuifolius, Willd. Spec. iii. 2026 

 (excl. syn.); Nutt. Gen. ii. 155; Nees, Ast. 119, partly. A. dumosus, Hoffm. Phyt. Blatt. 

 t. A, f. 2. A. ericoides & A. glabellus, Nees, Ast. 107. A. paucifidrus, Martens, Bull. Acad. 

 Brux. viii. (1841 ), 67. — Dry and open ground, Canada to Elorida and the Mississippi. 



Var. Reevesii (A. Reevesii of the gardens) is the most rigid form, comparatively 

 stout, glabrous except that the leaves are often hispidulous-ciliate toward the base ; the heads 

 and rays as large and the latter about as numerous as in A. polyphyllus. It is A. virgatus. 

 A. H. Curtiss, distrib. no. 1279, from dry river-banks near Nashville, Tenn. 



Var. villosus, Torr. & Gray, 1. c. Stem (generally low) with branches and not 

 rarely the leaves villous-hirsute or hispid-hirsute. — A. villosus, Michx. Fl. ii. 1 13. A. pilosus, 

 Willd. Spec. iii. 2055; Nees, Ast. 109.— Ohio to Iowa and Missouri, south to W. North 

 Carolina. The var. platyphyllus, Torr. & Gray, 1. c, is a very hirsute state of this, with 

 leaves broader, some even an inch wide and sparingly serrate. 



Var. pusillus. Slender, a span to a foot high, glabrous : cauline leaves mostly slen- 

 der-subulate or filiform : heads small (2 lines high), narrow, few-flowered : involucre turbi- 

 nate ; its bracts less rigid : rays 2 lines long. — Serpentine barrens, Lancaster, Penn., Porter. 

 A singular form, probably dwarfed by sterility of soil. 



Var. Pringlei. A slender and strict glabrous form, seldom over a foot high, simple 

 or with few erect branches, rather small heads, and shorter tips to the involucre, mentioned 



