6o JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
to Primula No. 10, an outlying type from the isolated and outlying 
mass of Thundercrown, which has also bred Aster kansuensis. 
[Note that seed distributed about the New Year under the No. 
F 131 in reality consists of, or includes, F 226 — I at first having 
been sceptical as to the distinctness of the two spp. until I again 
compared the dried specimens, when the distinct and glorious 
supremacy of F 226 leapt clearly to view.] 
Aster Thunbergi (F 246).- — We now move into the group of A.acris. 
All the warm bare loess banks, hedge-cliffs, and city embankments 
from Choni away down the South River Valley (not extending 
to Siku) are coloured in early July with this Aster, which forms 
a tight, neat, domed bush of many stiff and sturdy stems about 
a foot or 18 inches high and twice as much across, solid all over 
with domed heads of little lilac-lavender stars, making a rare 
effect of rich colour and concise, almost artificial tidiness. For 
hot dry slopes of the garden this charming pudding-bowl bushlet 
of blossom should have especial value. [Alas, it hardly seems 
hardy. 1915.] 
Aster hispidus (F 200) abounds on the hottest, barest loess hills 
and stony, torrid slopes about Siku. It is woody at the base, 
intricate and very fine and wiry in leaf and habit, forming low, 
filmy, heath-like masses, beset with little lavender Asters of great 
charm in August and September. Whether F 200 includes 
two spp. or not I cannot be certain, as the plant's true character 
is hard to decipher, owing to its always being so pitilessly cropped 
by goats on those Saharan hills. It is not, as thus seen, brilliant, 
but may prove much more so in goatless gardens, and anyhow, 
even at its most hard-bitten, has the fine and feathery charm 
of Felicia abyssinica. Seed has been collected from the best 
forms only. [It is clearly not hardy (1915).] 
Aster sp. (F 455). — Seems like a much glorified version of the last, 
from similar hot situations further down the Blackwater. It 
is probably nearer, however, to A. turbinellus, forming low, 
wiry, half-decumbent masses, with profusion of large and brilliant 
flowers in October, on very long, stiff pedicels. Seed from the 
finest forms only. 
Aster sikuensis sp. n. (F 456) replaces F 246 in the Siku district, 
blooming six weeks later, at the beginning of September. It is 
notably Galatelloid, with fewer stems than in F 246, forming 
no bush, and set with broader foliage of glaucescent tone. The 
flower-heads are lax ; the flowers comely and of a thick and 
chalky lavender. Its height is from 6 to 8 inches, and its beauty 
conspicuous and serene. Treatment &c. as for F 246. 
Aster sp. (F 458).^ — A rather weedy wayside Aster about Gahoba, 
whose very brilliant flowers, however, may look much better 
when the mass grows, under good cultivation, to a thick clump of 
soft greyish stems of 10-14 inches. I find some of these " back- 
end " Chinese Asters intensely puzzling ; each district seems to 
