COLLECTIONS OF 191 4. 
59 
It forms carpets of smooth-looking, almost glaucous foliage in 
rosettes, from which spring 6-inch stems in June, carrying a 
scattered flight of some four to five large flowers of a very 
tender pale lavender, so faint as to be almost of a soft grey in 
effect, as the flowers sheet the distance. In the rock-garden it 
would make the most delightful association with Papaver 
rhaeticum across a hot moraine [but proves none too generally 
hardy yet (1915)]. 
Aster limitaneus (F 173) exactly copies A. diplostephioides, but 
differs in having its 7-8-inch stems beset more liberally with 
quite narrow pointed leaflets inclining to expand at the base. 
The large marguerites of rich lavender unfold in July- August, 
and the upper grass-ridges of Tibet, imperialized in a rippling 
ocean of these glorious, golden-twinkling Asters, while among 
them flare the furious flopping scarlet flags of Meconopsis punicea, 
offer a sight that not even the Col de Lautaret can easily efface. 
F 173 is general on the high grassy lands of the Tibetan 
border, between 8,500-11,000 feet, stuntif ying into a very concise, 
neat, large-Astered form on the uppermost turfy summits, 
where it has a far-off look of A. alpinus on far-off hills. 
Aster Farreri sp. n. (F 174) is more local than the last ; I have seen it 
rarely in the Tibetan valley of Mirgo, here and there among the 
grass ; and very abundant in the alpine hay of the Bao-u-go Valley, 
at some 10,500 feet [and as universal in the lower Alps of the Da- 
Tung chain far up in the north (1915)], never seeming to ascend to 
the wind-ruffled heights of the great ridges above, where F 173 
is no less happy. It is a superb beauty, recalling A. Falconeri 
in the profusion of its especially long and narrow rays of deeper 
violet-blue than in the broad-rayed lavender face of F 173. The 
leaves are rather long and narrow, too — soft, and rather pointed ; 
leaflets sit alternately up the stout 12-15-inch stem, and the whole 
plant is green and hairy. The single flower is enormous, with an 
eye of intense vermilion-orange, clouded round by a Saturn's ring 
of chaffy fluff. Its fringy ragged grace is after a very different 
carelessly regal style of magnificence from the rather smug and 
fat-faced complacency of lovely F 173. 
Aster sp. (F 131), a sufficiently dear and dainty little alpine Aster, 
occupies the upper screes of Thundercrown, but further north- 
west, in the heart of the range, its place is taken by A. limitaneus 
F 226, a jewel pre-eminent among the best, with much larger 
golden-eyed purple Marguerites piercing everywhere on their 
3-inch stems, from the gaunt shingle-slopes of the upmost Min 
S'an. This little plant is hairier (especially at the base) with a grey 
pubescence, and the basal leaves in F 131 are usually more 
spathukte and clearly-stalked. None the less, and allowing for 
the floral supereminence of F 226, I fancy that they might both 
prove forms or developments of one species. Standing to each 
other as I once thought Primula No. 22, from the main range, did 
