Aster tripoiium on Salt Marshes

Abstract

I NOTICE in the article on Belgian botany in NATURE of January 20, p. 97, a statement which reminds me of some observations of mine at Dovercourt, near Harwich, in 1908. The article says that a fringe of the purple-rayed form of Aster tripoiium occurs between the salt marshes, occupied by the yellow form, and the more fertile, less saline, soil. At Dovercourt there are fields overflowed by the sea at every high tide, but still showing signs of former cultivation. The specimens of Aster growing here were all fleshy and rayless. Separated from these fields by earthen dykes were other fields, which showed no signs of being flooded at any time. Here the Aster was always thin and wiry in the stalk, and bore a well-developed ray.