THE WILD ASTERS OF WISCONSIN 
By Charles E. Monroe 
If you can look into the seeds of time, 
And say which grain will grow and which will not, 
Speak then to me . — Macbeth. 
INTRODUCTION 
The great range of variation exhibited by the American species 
of the genus Aster is well exemplified in the flora of Wisconsin. 
Side by side with the typical forms occur innumerable variants, 
departing from the type in different directions. Many of these 
form connecting links between different species, making it no easy 
matter to determine the line of separation between one species and 
another. Some varieties are apparently as stable and as widely 
distributed as the specific types, and suggest not so much recent 
as inherited variation, coming down long lines of descent. Others, 
less stable, may appear spontaneously in connection with the type, 
anywhere, but do not long retain their distinguishing character- 
istics. There are recurrent and sporadic variants, which may be 
reversions to former types, now slowly dying off, or incipient 
stages of new types in process of inauguration. Differences of 
hardly definable character often give a different aspect to the same 
species in different localities. Thinning of timber, drainage of soil, 
produce marked changes in these plants; and the vicissitudes of 
the seasons are able to bring about great transformations without 
any interference by human agencies. In the play of natural ten- 
dencies, under the stimulus of changing conditions, and in the 
struggle for existence amid unfriendly surroundings, new forms 
are continually emerging and disappearing. No doubt the com- 
moner and more widely distributed forms are the ones best adapted 
to preservation and perpetuation; but many others must have 
appeared and disappeared in the long course of evolution, and 
others are still coming into troubled and uncertain existence — some 
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