COMPOSITE. 



417 



Annual or biennial. Flower-heads several, on rather long 

 peduncles. Kay erect, very little longer than the 

 disk . . • 1. Common F. 



Perennial. Flower-heads solitary or very few. Bay spread- 

 ing, considerably longer than the disk 2. Alpine F. 



Several large-flowered American species are occasionally cultivated 

 in our flower-gardens. 



1. Common Erigeron. Erigeron aeris, Linn. (Fig. 494.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 1158. Fleabane.) 



An erect annual or biennial, 6 inches 

 to a foot high, slightly branched, and 

 rather rough with short hairs. Leaves 

 linear or lanceolate and entire, the ra- 

 dical ones stalked, but usually withered 

 away at the time of flowering. Flower- 

 heads rather small, solitary on the pe- 

 duncles or upper branches, forming a 

 short, loose panicle. Florets very nu- 

 merous, mostly filiform and short, the 

 outer rows of a pale purple, projecting 

 slightly beyond the involucre and pap- 

 pus, the tubular ones of the centre very 

 few, of a pale yellow. 



In pastures, on banks, roadsides, and 

 waste places, common in the greater 

 part of Europe, from the Mediterranean 

 to the Arctic regions, and in central 

 and Russian Asia. Less frequent in 

 England and Ireland, and rare in Scot- 

 land. Fl. summer and autumn. It varies much in stature, in the number 

 and size of the flower-heads, and of the florets of the ray, but these are 

 always smaller and more numerous than in the alpine F., much larger 

 and fewer than in the Canadian F. 



Fig. 494. 



2. Alpine Erigeron. Erigeron alpinus, Linn. (Fig. 495.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 464, and F. unijlorus, Eng. Bot. t. 2416.) 



Stock perennial, with erect or ascending hairy stems, 2 to 6 or rarely 

 8 inches high. Radical leaves oblong-lanceolate, tapering at the base ; 

 stem-leaves smaller, few, and lanceolate. Flower-heads solitary on each 

 stem, or rarely 2 or 3 in a loose corymb, each one at least half an 



vol. i. 2 k 



