COTONE ASTER. 



179 



quite smooth ; in shape they are broad oval 

 ending in a spine. The leaves of the flower 

 branches are narrower (sometimes broader), 

 tending to a roundish oval. The blossoms, 

 appearing in May, are white, thinly haired on 

 the undersides and somewhat loosely borne in 

 clusters of ten to twenty. The berries are red 

 in colour and oval in shape. A native of Spain 

 and the Trans-Caucasus extending as far as the 

 Western Himalayas, Altai and China. Among 

 the kinds hardiest in our wintersit is the hand- 

 somest in blossom. The white flat tufts often 

 cover the branches ; the berries, however, are 

 few and ineffective. The cultivated varieties, 

 known to me as C. rejiexa, are — 'Jacquemonti, 

 with ovate rounded or inverted cordiformleaf ; 

 the upper side smooth and dark, the under side 

 covered with whitish-grey down. Native of 

 Kashmir and Kumaon, according to Hooker, 

 who states that "the leaves of the Garwhal 

 plant are generally oval-shaped and pointed, 

 whereas in the Altai and Soongaria species the 

 leaves are rounded, oval, or cordiform." Pu- 

 bescens y with underside of leaf covered with soft 

 hairs or down. 



C. arborescens (Zabel). — A tree-like shrub 

 a little over 10 feet high ; attaining (in warm 

 regions) the size of a small tree ; the young 

 shoots are thickly covered with white down 

 but later on are smooth and red or dark brown 

 in colour. The leaves are half-evergreen, 

 smooth dark green above and light blue-green 

 beneath, at first thinly haired and, later on, 

 smooth except on the veins and edges. Leaves 

 circular or oval, round ovate, slightly narrow- 

 ing towards the stalk, rounded at the upper end 

 and terminating in a very short or curtailed 

 spine. On the leaf-twigs they are nearly or 

 quite 2 inches long by a little over 1 inch wide 

 and are borne on strong stalks ; on the main 

 branches they are larger; those on the flower- 

 twigs are less than 1 inch long, in shape vary- 

 ing from broad-elliptical to round wedge-shape 

 and frequently emarginate. The blossoms are 

 white, and very numerous about the middle 

 of June on the last year's branches ; they are 

 borne on short-stalked compact whorls of five 

 to ten. Close to the stalk the broad inverted 

 cone-shaped calix and its triangular tip are 

 alike thickly covered with down. The petals 

 are round-elliptical in shape. The berries are 



black dusted with blue and conical. The shrub 

 is a native of the Himalayas or Kashmir. I 

 saw it so long ago as 1859 in flower in the 

 Greifswalder Botanical Garden. With us it 

 never attains to tree stature, being cut down 

 by severe winters, from which, however, it re- 

 covers and forms a tall elegant shrub, hand- 

 some in leaf. 



C. bacillaris (Wallich). — A tall shrub or 

 small tree ; the young shoots at first thinly 

 haired, become quite smooth and a brown or 

 russet colour. The leaf is narrow elliptical in 

 shape, about 3 inches long by about 1 or ij 

 inches broad, equi-pointed at both ends, ter- 

 minating in a spine ; at first haired on the 

 edges and the under midrib, but soon becomes 

 quite smooth. The leaf is dark green above, 

 pale green below. The leaves of the side twigs 

 aresomewhatshorter and broader. The blooms 

 at the end of the short side twigs are borne on 

 long-stalked, rather close-set clusters of many 

 blossoms. The calix at base and tip is sparsely 

 haired. The petal is white and thickly bearded 

 at the base. The berry is conical and dark 

 brown in colour. The variety obtusa differs 

 from the type in having shorter leaves, and 

 flowers and flower-stalks almost hairless. In 

 the variety Jioribunda, raised by me from seed 

 received from Kew, the leaves are smaller by 

 one-fourth and the hair under the leaf longer. 

 In the variety parvifolia the leaves are ellip- 

 tical, pointed or blunted at the ends and vary 

 in length from \ to 1 inch. The flower heads 

 are short and blossoms small, numerous and 

 compact. Bhotan. A native of the Himalayan 

 region. Closely resembles G.frigida. 



C. affinis (Lindley). — A small tree, differ- 

 ing from the last in being more closely haired 

 and broader leaved. The young main shoots 

 are at first thickly covered with depressed 

 hairs, but these become thinner, though the 

 stem is never quite smooth. The leaf, stalk, 

 and the underside of leaf, at first hairy, be- 

 come smooth later on, except on the midrib 

 and at the edges. The leaves are broad ellip- 

 tical in shape, short-pointed at both ends, or 

 rounded off at base and (more seldom) broad 

 oval and rounded at the ends. The flower 

 stalks are more or less covered with wool or 

 down ; the common flower stalk borne loosely 

 and covered with down. According to Hooker 5 



P 3 



