THE TWO FORMS OF THE SEA-ASTER. 237
same plant grows on the side of dried up ditches or on low banks,
they possess a ray (absent in the former) of delicate lavender
florets surrounding a yellow centre, which clothes them in an
entirely different aspect.
Has any one remarked on this peculiarity before ? I do not
find it noted in my hand-book. I closely examined the marine
plants and found in many cases a few poorly developed lavender
ray-florets growing unevenly here and there, but the majority
had none at all, and the few that produced them looked as if they
were half ashamed of owning such shabby productions. Yet just
over the sea wall, where the tide could not penetrate, the lavender
or purple rays were in full bloom, and conspicuous by their
strong and healthy condition. Is it a case of degeneration ?
Can it be that the sea-aster thriving on the soft luscious mud of
the saltings, has found such a luxuriant habitat that it troubles
no longer to produce the beautifully tinted ray-florets which erst
were probably intended to attract the helpful bee or other
winged insect?
In the present crowded state of the plants, would the wind be
a sufficient carrier of pollen? They certainly show a very marked
variation in accordance with habitat. It has at first sight the
look of a clear case of either evolution or devolution, and I should
be glad of an opinion, if I can elicit such, in the pages of the
Essex Naturalist.
[The two forms of the Sea-Aster are, of course, well-known, the rayles
or generally nearly rayless, one being separated as var. discoideus, but I have
been unable to find that anyone has before connected the forms with a
difference in habitat. When I received Mr. Clark's interesting notes
last year, it was too late to test the suspicion that possibly there was a
young and an older form of the flower, and that the latter had shed the ray-
florets. I therefore, with Mr. Clark's approval, kept the note back. Whilst on
the Essex Coast this August and September I paid attention to the asters, and
I can certainly confirm Mr. Clark's observations. I observed very many
thousand plants growing on the mud bordering the estuaries and creeks, and
in the vast majority the purple "rays" were absent in all stages—the
imperfectly rayed plants noticed were only a very small percentage of the
wholly rayless form. At the same times, the asters growing on the higher
tideless lands in St. Osyth parish and elsewhere, were conspicuously attired
with beautiful purple, or whitish purple, rays. Diptera and Hymenoptera
frequent both forms—but in my experience are in far greater profusion on the
"rayed" asters.—W. Cole.]