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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



showy flowers and suitability for the border, or for their dwarf or 

 compact habit, making them of special value as rock-plants. 



Although there are but few species found in Europe, yet 

 these are most of them greatly valued for the rockery or small 

 flower-beds. Most of them belong to the section Galatella, under 

 which generic name they were all originally described. First and 

 foremost comes A. acris, an extremely variable, and in its best 

 forms one of the most beautiful of the early dwarf Asters. It 

 includes dracunciUoides, hyssopifolius, punctatus, and linifolius. 

 It varies in height from 3 inches to 3 feet, the taller forms being 

 the showiest and most useful border subjects. 



A. canus is a nearly allied species, and differs chiefly in its 

 shorter and broader distinctly 3-nerved leaves and paler flowers. 

 A. dahuricus, also a good species, has much larger flowers than 

 A. acris, a larger involucre, and rich lilac florets. It extends 

 to Central Siberia. A. Linosyris " Goldielocks," of which there 

 are several forms, some with and others without ray-florets, is a 

 distinct and attractive plant, and will certainly come in the first 

 thirty garden Asters. 



Of Aster proper there are nine species found in the old world, 

 the well-known A. pyrcnaus being perhaps the rarest. It is a 

 beautiful early, free-flowering plant, and will be found useful for 

 the rockery. Another well-known species for a similar purpose 

 is A. alpinus, charming in its best forms, dwarf and free, and a 

 good doer. We next come to the most handsome of the European 

 Asters, A. Amellus. It is widely spread through Central and 

 Eastern Europe to Armenia and the Caucasus. It is a valuable 

 garden-plant, of good compact habit, free flowering, and very 

 variable, both in size and colour of flowers. The Committee 

 have selected four forms for naming : bessarabictis, amelloides, 

 major, and cassubicus. Ibericus is given in " Flora Orientalis " as 

 a variety with more pubescent stems and smaller flowers. This 

 species is very nearly allied to the Western Himalayan pscudo- 

 Amellus and the temperate Asian A llaackii, both of which are 

 in cultivation at Kew. A. sibiricus stretches in its geographical 

 distribution from Lapland through Siberia to Arctic America, 

 and south to the Rocky Mountains. Amongst the first Asters to 

 flower is a dwarf showy species that would make a good rock- 

 plant, the North American A. radula; A. radulinus is very 

 nearly allied to it. A. salignus is suspiciously near to dwarf 



