THE GENUS ASTER. 



11 



Everyone is aware of the ridiculous mistakes which are some- 

 times made when new plants are introduced to notice : some- 

 times reasonably hardy plants have been treated as tender, and 

 tender plants have been subjected to severer weather than they 

 ever had in their former home. These mistakes are due to the 

 well-known fact that in a given climate the local conditions may 

 make all the difference in the world ; in the tropics, for instance, 

 in the high lands of Ceylon, one can see English plants thriving- 

 as if they were in Britain, while in hot exposures not many miles 

 away true tropical luxuriance is a noteworthy feature. In 

 America the distance of a few miles sometimes makes a greater 

 difference than that to which I have just referred, and one must 

 take this into account in attempting to judge from its station, as 

 given in the Manuals of Botany, just what place a species 

 must have assigned to it in cultivation. This is particularly the 

 case in such a genus as the Asters, where many of the species in 

 some of their forms are very patient under any kind of treatment,, 

 and their immediate congeners are the reverse. 



Therefore any statements relative to the special stations of 

 these plants must be regarded as hints rather than as directions 

 for horticultural management. 



At the beginning of the task of describing the range of our 

 American species of Aster we are met by a difficulty which is 

 very hard to meet, namely, the immense size of some of the 

 provinces of the Dominion of Canada and of the States of the- 

 Union. For instance, the occurrence of a given species at a few 

 points in the State of Texas entitles it to rank as the denizen 

 of a commonwealth possessing more than 250,000 square miles, 

 considerably larger than Germany or France, and twice as large 

 as all the British Isles taken together. The provinces of 

 Ontario and of Quebec are each larger than Italy. When an 

 Aster is said to have a range from Canada to Florida, it may 

 extend through twenty-five degrees of latitude ; while from 

 Alaska to California there is rather more difference than this. 



The species which have been indicated in the foregoing com- 

 munication as desirable for cultivation are, as a rule, those which 

 have a wide distribution ; for instance, Aster Novce-Anglice ranges 

 from Canada and Saskatchewan to Carolina and Colorado ; 

 Aster Novi-Bclgii from New Brunswick to Georgia and westward 

 to Illinois. Surely we have here sufficient difference of climate 



