Aster. COMPOSITE. 201 



++ ++ Head (broad and large for the plant) solitary on the simple and scapiform few- and small- 

 leaved stems, which with the cluster of narrow radical leaves rise from a thickened caudex : 

 involucral bracts linear, acutish, rather loose, often tomentnlose when young : the plants other- 

 wise glabrous and smooth : rays numerous, purple or violet : style-appendages slender and 

 acute, usually more than twice the length of the stigmatic portion : akenes narrow : pappus 

 strongly denticulate. 



A. Andersoni, Gray. Scapiform stems a span to a. foot high, erect : radical leaves ligu- 

 late-linear or slightly broader upward, gramineous, mostly acute (2 to 10 inches long, 2 or 3 

 lines wide), nervose when dry; upper cauline reduced to scattered subulate bracts: head 

 broad (fully half-inch high and wide) : style appendages filiform : akenes oblong-linear, soft- 

 villous. — Proc. Am. Acad. vii. 352, & Bot. Calif, i. 325. Engeron Andersonii, Gray, 1. c, vi. 

 540. — Wet subalpine meadows, along the whole length of the Sierra Nevada, California and 

 borders of Nevada; first coll. by Anderson. 



A. pulohellus, Eaton. Scapiform stems spreading and assurgent, 2 to 4 inches long: 

 radical leaves from lingulate-spatulate to narrowly linear, an inch or two long, obtuse, nerve- 

 less, in the larger western form often 3 or 4 lines wide near apex, and heads as large as 

 those of A. Andersoni; in the smaller more eastern form only a line wide and heads 

 smaller : style-appendages linear-subulate : akenes linear, striate, glabrate, at least below. — 

 Bot. King Exp. 143, t. 16, the small and slender form, published in 1871. A. alpigenus, 

 Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. viii. 389 (1872), the larger form first collected by Tolmie, and pub- 

 lished as Aplopappus alpigenus, Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 241, the rays supposed to be yellow, 

 whereas they are violet. — On the higher mountains, viz. Ranier, Paddo, and Hood, of 

 Washington Terr, and Oregon, rediscovered by Ball, Howell, Suhsdorf, Mrs. Barratt, and 

 the smaller form on Blue Mountains, E. Oregon, Cusick, those of N. Nevada, Watson, also 

 Bocky Mountains of Wyoming and Montana, Hayflen, Parry, Scribner. 



4— -*— Ambiguous species, with small heads (2 or 3 lines high) few or solitary, terminating very 

 slender leafy stems or branches ; and leaves small and slender : style-appendages ovate-subulate, 

 about the length of the s'igmatic portion : akenes compressed, hispidulous-pubescent, 2— 3-nerved: 

 pappus rather scanty and fragile (therefore near to Erigeron, but with the style-tips of Aster) : 

 small and many-stemmed from a somewhat ligneous caudex, nearly glabrous. 



A , 'W^atsoni, Gray. Cespitose, 2 to 4 inches high ; the filiform stems mostly monocepha- 

 lous : leaves filiform-linear, or the lower and larger (inch long) with spatulate-dilated apex ; 

 upper very small : bracts of the involucre lanceolate, acute, commonly purplish-tinged, 2-3- 

 seriate : rays white or purplish : style-appendages ovate or triangular and acuminate-sub- 

 ulate. — A. glacialis, in part, Eaton, Bot. King Exp. 142 (no. 509), also mixed with speci- 

 mens of A. pulchellus. — Mountains of N. Nevada, Wahsatch Mountains at the head of 

 American Fork ; first coll. by Watson. 



A. arenarioid.es, Eaton. Stems tufted on a woody caudex, almost filiform, 6 to 9 inches 

 high, sparingly branched above, or bearing 2 to 4 heads : leaves filiform-linear, even the lower 

 (inch or two long) only obscurely dilated upward : uppermost reduced to minute subulate 

 bracts ; bracts of the involucre linear, rather rigid, unequal and 3-seriate : rays white or 

 bluish : style-appendages ovate-subulate, merely acute. — Proc. Am. Acad. viii. 647. Eri- 

 geron stenophijllum, Eaton, Bot. King Exp. 152, t. 17, not Gray. — Wahsatch Mountains, 

 above Cottonwood Canon, 8,000-9,000 feet, Watson. 



# # # # # Involucre (except in A. pauciflorus) well imbricated and with short outer bracts dis- 

 posed to pass into scale-like bracts of the peduncle: herbs or shrubby plants, maritime or of 

 alkaline soil; the leaves more or less fleshy or reduced to scales. — § Oxytripolium in part (the 

 perennial species), Torr. & Gray. 

 -I- Heads rather large (about half-inch high), with showy violet rays : involucre well imbricated 

 in several rants: leaves long aud narrow, entire, moderately fleshy: very glabrous herbs of the 

 Atlantic coast. (Here also A. imbricatus, Walp. Rep. ii. 574, Tripolium imbricatum, Nutt, and 

 the true T. conspicuum, Lindl. in DC , of Chili ; see Proc. Am. Acad. xvii. 210.) 

 A. Chapmani, Torr. & Gray. Stem simple and slender, 2 or 3 feet high, from >. thick- 

 ish caudex, bearing a few simple slender monocephalous branches at summit : leaves rigid 

 when dry, linear, or radical spatulate-linear (these 5 to 9 inches long, including the long at- 

 tenuate base), obscurely nerved when dry ; cauline becoming subulate-filiform and erect, and 

 reduced on the branches to minute bracts : involucre campanulate, equalling the disk ; its 

 ■ rather firm bracts mostly oblong-lanceolate, acute or mucronate : style-appendages ovate- 



