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THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



The peculiarity is now known to belong to several of the Com- 

 positae, among them various forms of the common sunflower 

 as well as a Mexican species, Bidens hcterophylla, in which the 

 phenomenon appears to have been first noticed. The writer 

 of this paragraph has found the peculiarity in another sun- 

 flower, Helianthus laetiflorus, in Coreopsis trichosperim, and 

 in Riidbeckia triloba. It is to be noted that the plants in 

 which this feature is present, belong to a group in which the 

 ray flowers are often marked with brown or brownish-red at 

 the base, though some of the species which affect the pho- 

 tographic plate in this way have no known forms with this 

 peculiarity. Wq may suggest the hypothesis, however, that 

 in plants which show this feature a red color is latent and 

 could be brought out by breeding. To make a series of 

 photographs of flowers of this kind would be an interesting 

 pastime and would possibly indicate a number of plants from 

 which a start might be made in breeding. 



Varieties of Asters. — The herbarium kind of botanist 

 often speaks disparagingly of the gardener's favorites but the 

 latter individual makes everything even by considering all 

 plants growing without cultivation as mere weeds. It is not 

 uncommon for the thoughtless to ask 'Ts it a flower or a 

 weed?" when some new specimen with handsome flowers is 

 brought to their notice. All cultivated flowering plants, must 

 of course, grow wild somewhere, though in many cases the 

 garden forms have been improved by inducing them to bear 

 differently colored or larger flowers, or more of them. It 

 may astonish many botanists, however, to know that gardeners 

 have no less than ten named varieties of the New England 

 aster (Aster nova-Arvgliae) while the botanical manuals have 

 only one — rosea. Among the gardener's creations are plants 

 with deep crimson flowers which quite outclass the pink- 

 flowered form that botanists have thought worth while digni- 

 fying with a name. Many other species of our native asters 



