192 COMPOSITE. Aster. 



loose and similar. — A. adscendens, var. Fremonti, Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 503. A. adscendens ? 

 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. Parishii. 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 Mountains, 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 (these 4 or 5 lines high) : leaves mainly linear and narrow; cauline 1 to 

 3 inches long and only a line 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 acutish 

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

 about 4 lines long. — Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 164 (Tripolium occidentale, Nutt. 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 grounds and along streams, Idaho to 

 Washington Terr., and along the Sierra Nevada, California, to Kern Co. (A. 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. cestivus, Eaton in Bot. King 

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



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

 A. Menziesii or of A. adscendens, a foot or two high, rather rigid, somewhat sparingly 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 Valley, &c, Washington Terr., Suksdorf, Howell, Bran- 

 degee, and N. California, Pringle. 



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

 A. hesp§rius. Resembles A. paniculatus and A. salicifolius of the East, equally variable, 

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

 larger with a few denticulations (2 to 5 inches long, 3 to 8 lines 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 

 herbaceous 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, cestivus, &c, and coll. by 

 Wright, Greene, Rothroch, Cleveland, Parish, Lemmon, &c. 



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

 to the base or nearly so, equalling the inner, and more or less enlarged, either ascending or 

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

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



1. Heads small. 

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

 branched at summit, or bearing several to many paniculate heads ; these about 3 lines high : 

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

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

 none) : rays about 2 lines long, white or purplish. — Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 163, viz. Tripolium 

 Oreganum, Nutt. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. vii. 296, on small and hardly developed specimens. 

 A. simplex and perhaps A. carneus, Eaton in Bot. King Exp. 1. u. ' A. laxifolius, in part, Hook. 

 Lond Jour. Bot. vi. 240, not Nees, — Wet banks of 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, Lindl, Smooth, 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 



