1913] 
Monroe: Wild Asters of Wisconsin 
93 
A. Schreberi Nees 
A. umbelliformis Burgess 
A. ambiguus Bernh. in Nees 
The first of these names is used here, as in Gray’s New Manual , 
to include a great variety of Biotian Asters, distinguished from the 
macrophyllus group by white rays and the absence of capitate 
glands. The only portion of the state in which plants of this 
character are known to occur is a narrow and interrupted area, a 
little over two miles in total length, extending from the northern 
limits of the city of Milwaukee to the woods west and north of the 
Whitefish Bay resort. In this limited territory they occur in great 
profusion and exhibit a great variety of forms. The principal 
differences are found in the size and shape of the leaves and sinus, 
the proportion of winged and naked petioles, size of heads, length 
of rays and character of bracts. Two lines of variation are dis- 
tinguished, by the tendency, on the one hand to corymbose, and 
on the other, to paniculate ramification. In the former the stem 
seems to bend away from the branches, giving at each joint an ap- 
pearance of bifurcation; in the other the central axis stands erect. 
These- differences, however, do not always seem to be fixed or 
permanent. The whole facies of the group changes from year to 
year and a series of plants collected during many successive seasons 
presents a polymorphic, or metamorphic, aspect of a very peculiar 
character. These facts, as well as the limited area to which the 
plants are restricted, suggest caution in any attempt to separate 
them under specific designations. 
There are, however, plainly recognizable within the group, plants 
which answer very closely to two of the species which are described 
in Professor Burgess’s monograph. One of these, A. umbelli- 
formis , has maintained its characteristic aspect during a number 
of successive seasons, but is restricted to a single locality in the 
woods at Whitefish Bay. The other, A. ambiguus , was only noted 
in Lake Woods in 1903 and 1904, since which time it has given 
place at the same locality to plants of a less definite character. 
Among the many other forms are some suggesting with more or 
less closeness of approximation the species distinguished by Pro- 
fessor Burgess under the names of A. curvescens , A. vittatus, A. 
Eriensis, A . glomeratus, A . Julianus, A . limicola, A . redifolius and 
