assa] 



®i)e &tzng\ixv at 23otattM. 



104 



Black Maidenhair Spleenwort, one of the 

 commoner British species, has bipinnate 

 fronds ; another common one, A. Tricho- 

 manes, the common Maidenhair Spleen- 

 wort, has pinnate fronds ; while A. sep- 

 tentrionale, one of the rarer native species 

 of northern habitats, has the fronds re- 

 duced to the appearance of two or three 

 forked rigid ribs. Some of the exotic 

 species are very beautiful in form ; and 

 many of them are cultivated on account 

 of their beauty in our gardens and hot- 

 houses. Several species have the very 

 singular property, strongly developed, of 

 hearing little buds on their surface, from 

 which young plants are formed even 

 while they are retained upon the parent 

 frond. The genus has been named Asple- 

 nium, or Spleenwort, on account of some 

 supposed potency in the plants over dis- 

 eases or affections of the spleen ; but, as 

 in many other instances, these virtues are 

 both fanciful and fabulous. The principal 

 genera, separated from Asplenium by mo- 

 dern pteridologists, are Diplazium, Athy- 

 rium, Thamnopteris, Hemidictyum, Allan- 

 toclia, Ceterach, and Callipteris. [T. MJ 



ASSAGAY-TREE. Curtisia faginea. 



ASSARACUS. A subdivision of the 

 genus Narcissus, including A T . capax and 

 N. reflexus, in which the segments of the 

 perianth are semi-reflexed, and the coronet 

 poculiform, about equalling the perianth 

 segments. [T. MJ 



ASTELIA. A genus of sedge-like Jun- 

 caceo?, from the Islands of the Southern 

 Ocean, with polygamous-dioecious flowers, 

 having a perianth of glumaceous texture, 

 as in the rush ; ovary three-celled or one- 

 celled by the incompleteness of the par- 

 titions ; fruit berry -like ; stem very short ; 

 leaves broadly-linear, hairy, very silky at 

 the base. A. alpina has leaves three-quar- 

 ters of an inch broad, and an extremely 

 short flatteued scape, crowned by a dense 

 panicle of rather large chesnut-coloured 

 flowers. The leaves of this species, which 

 grows on the sand-hills of the coast of Tas- 

 mania, are edible, and are said to have a 

 nutty flavour. [J. T. S] 



ASTEMON. A genus of labiates, found 

 in Bolivia ; it is related to Colebrookia, from 

 which it differs in having a non-plumose 

 calyx, and a five-lobed, not four-lobed, co- 

 rolla. The calyx is tubulose-campanulate, 

 with five subequal lanceolate acuminate 

 teeth. The corolla tube is as long as the 

 calyx, the limb short and nearly equally 

 flve-lobed, and the throat bearded. The 

 stamens, described as wanting, are in re- 

 ality reduced to four small distant stalk- 

 less anthers, adnate to the corolla-tube. 

 A. graveolens is a shrub six to eight feet 

 high, having an unpleasant odour ; the 

 leaves oblong-lanceolate,attenuately acute, 

 green and smoothish above, whitish and 

 tomentose beneath ; and the flowers small, 

 white, in a terminal panicle, which is still 

 more densely clothed than the stems and 

 leaves with white tomentum. [T. M.] 



j ASTEPHANUS. A genus of Asclepia- 

 dacece, containing thirteen species, natives • 

 chiefly of the Cape of Good Hope and Ma- 

 dagascar, but found also sparingly in 

 America. They are climbing or decumbent 

 under-shrubs, with small opposite leaves, 

 and interpetiolar umbels, consisting of a 



j few small and generally white flowers. 

 The calyx consists of five acute sepals ; 

 the corolla is campanulate and has no 

 squamae within the tube (the character by 

 which this genus is distinguished from 

 Metastelma). There are ten small pendu- 

 lous masses of pollen. [W. C] 



ASTER. A well-known genus of the 

 composite family, numbering nearly 200 

 species, which are distributed sparingly 

 over Europe, Asia, and S. America, but 

 occur in great abundance in N. America, 

 where three-fourths of them are indigen- 

 ous. They are perennial (rarely annual) 

 herbs with alternate and simple entire or 

 toothed leaves, and panicled, racemed, or 

 corymbose star-like flower-heads, having 

 an involucre of numerous imbricated 

 scales, enclosing many florets, the outer 

 row strap-shaped and pistil-bearing, those 

 in the centre tubular, and all having more 

 or less flattened achenes crowned with 

 a pappus of numerous capillary bristles. 

 From their time of flowering, Asters are 

 often called Michaelmas Daisies and Christ- 

 mas Daisies, some of them continuing in 

 J flower in the open air in mild seasons up 

 j to the latter period ; and for this reason 

 they are valuable garden plants, because 

 there are few things but themselves which 

 . flower so late in the year. The Seaside 

 I Aster, A. Tripolium, is the only British 

 ' species. It is a pretty plant, six inches to 

 | two feet high, with linear or lance-shaped 

 smooth and fleshy leaves, and stems ter- 

 I minating in corymbs of purple-rayed 

 flower-heads, rather more than half an 

 inch across. It occurs pretty generally 

 over all the British as well as European 

 coasts. The Alpine Aster, A. alpinus, is 

 the type of a small group which inhabit 

 Alpine regions alone. It is found on the 

 mountains of Central Europe, Asia, and N. 

 America, growing from three inches to a 

 foot high, the stem furnished with lance- 

 shaped or linear leaves, one to two inches 

 long, and terminating in a blue-rayed 

 flower-head, one to two inches across. 

 : The remainder are mostly branching plants, 

 1 from one to ten feet high, with heart- 

 [ shaped, willow or heath-like leaves, and 

 starry flower-heads, always with the cen- 

 tral tubular florets yellow, and the rays 

 varying from white to lilac blue or pur- 

 ple. There is a great sameness about many 

 of the species, and they are most difficult 

 to determine. We can only name as some 

 of the more showy kinds A. spectabilis, 

 A. Novai-Anglice, A. versicolor, and A. turbi- 

 nellus, all North American ; A.sikkimevsis, 

 from the Sikkim Himalaya and the Italian 

 Star wort, A. Amellus, from S. Europe. 



[A. A. B.] 



ASTER, CAPE. Agathcea amelloides. — , 



