Annual Report of the State Botanist 1892 - MykoWeb

10
Report of the State Botanist.
there about one month later than on Long Island. Of the two
remaining species of this group, the shining rose, Rosa lucida,
and the dwarf rose, R. humilis^ the extreme forms are easily
recognized ; the former by its tall stout stem, stout spines and
dark-green shining leaves ; the latter, by its low slender growth,
straight, slender spines, thinner leaves and fewer flowers ; but all
manner of intermediate forms occur wliich are very perplexing
and which seem to connect the two.
Among our wild asters several interesting forms and varieties
have been collected. Some of the most notable of these variations
have been found to occur in the prenanthoid aster, Astei' jprenan-
thoides, a species which seems to have been regarded as quite
uniform and fixed in its characters, for only a single variety is
mentioned in the North American Flora. In the Catskill
mountain region it varies excessively in the size and shape of
the leaves, in the number and size of the heads and in their
arrangement in panicles and corymbs, in the color of the rays and
in the nurnber, length and direction of the branches. The
extreme forms, if observed separately, would scarcely be
thought to belong to the same species, but they are so connected
by intermediate forms that it is dffi cult to separate them.
A more extended account of these variations will be found in
another part of this Report.
Scarcely less remarkable are the variations shown by the low
or dwarf goldenrod, Solidago humilis. This species, which I
have found in the Adirondack region only, occurs on the top of
the low rocky ridge on tbe north shore of Third lake, one of the
Fulton chain of lakes. This ridge is known as Bald mountain
Its summit is long and narrow and nearly destitute of trees.
Here and there the rock is covered with limited areas of thin soil
that has accumulated in the depressions and shallow cavities and
crevices. In this the dwarf goldenrod grows. The elevation,
temperature, degree of exposure, moisture and character of the
soil are all so uniform over the whole summit that much variation
in the character of any plant that might grow there would
scarcely be expected. Yet this goldenrod, in this limited area
and apparently exposed to the same external conditions, exhibits
here four well-marked and quite distinct forms. It certainly
looks as if variation does not always depend upon external cir-
cumstances.