Protologue Description: Var. oligocephalus, n. var., caulibus solitariis vel caespitosis 6-30 cm. altis hirsutis eglandulosis vel non evidenter glandulosis; capitulis subnutantibus demum erectis solitariis vel 2-8 laxe corymbosis, pedunculis plerumque elongates valde ascendentibus; involucro 7-10 mm. longo, bracteis lineari-attenuatis appressis hirsutis; radiis lilacinis in siccitatis subcaeruleis discum paullo superantibus.
Stems solitary or tufted, 6-30 cm. high, hirsute, glandless or not obviously glandular: heads at first somewhat nodding, becoming erect, solitary or 2-8 in a loose corymb, the mostly elongate peduncles strongly ascending: involucre 7-10 mm. long: its appressed linear-attenuate bracts hirsute: rays lilac (drying bluish), slightly exceeding the disk.- Var. debilis Gray, Syn. Fl. i. pt. 2, 220 (1884) as to Labrador and Hudson Bay plants. E. alpinus ? Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. ii. 18 (1834). E. elatus Greene, Pittonia, iii. 164 (1897), not E. alpinus ? elata Hook. 1. c.-Labrador to Mackenzie, south to Gaspé County, Quebec, and Alberta. Examined from the following stations. LABRADOR: near Okak (Weiz); wet calcareous- sandstone crests and slopes, Blanc Sablon, August 6, 1910 (Fernald & Wiegand, no. 4318 TYPE in Gray. Herb.). HUDSON BAY (Burke). QUEBEC: Gravelly banks of the River Ste. Anne des Monts, July 12, 1892 (Elizabeth Taylor no. 29). ALBERTA, above lagan, July 13, 1904 (John Macoun, Herb. Geol. Surv. Can., no. 65,548).