SMALL GALACTIC H-II REGIONS .1. SPECTRAL CLASSIFICATIONS OF MASSIVE STARS

By studying the stellar content of star-forming regions with different characteristics, such as gas cloud size, one can determine factors that affect the star-formation process. This paper is part of a study of the stellar content and natal cloud characteristics of a sample of relatively small Galactic star-forming regions. Here we present spectral classifications based on moderate dispersion spectra of the optically visible stars in the regions. The Ha, radio, and far-infrared luminosities of the nebulae are used as a check for additional embedded or unidentified hot stars. A histogram of the most massive star per star-forming unit shows that there is a range in upper mass limits for the sample and that one is statistically sampling a mass function intermediate between that of Salpeter and that of Miller-Scalo.