180 COMPOSITE. Aster. 



DC. Prodr. v. 233. A. ciUatus, Nutt. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. vii. 295, not Walt. Prairies, 

 W. Louisiana and Texas ; first coll. by Drummond. 



+- .j__ Heads smaller, usually numerous and racemosely disposed on virgate simple stems : involu- 

 cre closer and of small bracts: akenes silky-villous. 



A. concolor, L. Stems slender, 2 feet high, sometimes from a tuberous-thickened root- 

 stock, very leafy: leaves small, canesceut with minute pubescence, rarely glabrate, from 

 oblong to short-linear ; the lower on fertile stems only inch long, above gradually reduced in 

 the inflorescence to small bracts : heads rather narrow (4 lines high) : bracts of the involucre 

 lanceolate, erect, sericeous-cauescent ; the tips short and narrow, or sometimes more pro- 

 longed: rays 10 to 15, 3 or 4 lines long, violet-purple. Spec. ed. 2, ii. 1228; Walt. Car. 

 209 ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 113; Bertol. Misc. Bot. vi. t. 5. Sandy or gravelly soil, mostly 

 in pine barrens, toward the coast, Rhode Island to Florida and Louisiana. 



* 5. Involucre turbinate, phiriserial, not glandular; the appressed coriaceous whitish bracts with 

 definite and short (mostly ovate) and slightly squarrose green tips, outer successively shorter: 

 heads rather small, but large in proportion to the minute (line or tiro lung) crotcilol iul nnij'oi , 

 caulini leaves} radical leaves rosulate, subsessile, abruptly larger and very unlike the cauline, 

 sometimes an inch long: herbage scabrous: rays violet, 3 or 4 lines long: akenes short, pubes- 

 cent : flowering late in autumn. BKACHTPHYLLI. 



A. Squarrosus, WALT. Stems rigid, slender, panicnlntely much branched, a foot or two 

 high, bearing scattered heads : branches throughout uniformly squarrose with the minute 

 recurved-spreading rigid leaves ; these mostly ovate-subulate and a line long ; lowest on 

 sterile shoots 2 or 3 lines long, lanceolate-subulate, mucronate-cuspidate : bracts of the obo- 

 vate-turbinate involucre with very obtuse or roundish green tips. Car. 209 ; Miclix. Fl. 

 ii. 112; Ell. Sk. ii. 530; Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 114. Dry pine barrens, N. Carolina to 

 Florida. 



A. adnatus, NUTT. More hispidulous-scabrous and virgately branched : leaves almost im- 

 bricated on the stem and branches, lanceolate-oblong, with clasping base, appressed and by 

 the midrib aduate to the stem for most of their length, only the lowest larger and free : 

 heads rather smaller and involucral bracts acutish. lour. Acad. Philad. vii. 82; Hook. 

 Comp. Bot. Mag. i. 97 ; Torr. & Gray, 1. c. A. microphyllits, Torr. ex Lindl. in DC. Prodr. 

 v. 244 ; Bertol. Misc. Bot. vi. t. 5. Pine barrens of Alabama and W. Florida. 



* 6. Involucre ovoid with turbinate base or campanulate, appressed-imbricated, phiriserial : the 



bracts narrow, coriaceous, minutely granulose or scabrous, but not glandular, acute, with indi~- 

 tinctlv marked green tips, the outer successively >horter: whole herbage scabrous-pubescent: 

 cmi/iiK- /tufts all with sessile and completely cordate-clasping base, the basal lobes generally 

 meeting or overlapping around the stem ; radical not cordate; all entire: heads showy: akenes 

 many-striate, sericeous-pubescent, narrow. PATEMTES. 



A. patens, AIT. Stems 2 or 3 feet high, with long and slender rigid divergent branches, 

 mostly bearing single heads : leaves from oblong to broadly lanceolate, rather rigid, scabrous, 

 rarely with obscure serratures, roughly liispidulous-ciliolate ; the cauliue an inch or two long, 

 sometimes narrowed above the broad auriculate clasping base ; those of the brauchlets grad- 

 ually reduced to small subulate bracts : heads half-inch or less high : rays a third to half an 

 inch long, about 24, dee]) violet. Ait. Kew. iii. 201 ; Pursh, Fl. ii. 551 ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. 

 ii. 114. A. tini/ii/iitiis, Ell. Sk. ii. 361, not L. A. <niij>lr-.ricaulis, Michx. Fl. ii. 114; Bigel. 

 Fl. Bost. ed. 2, 312, not Lam. A. patriitixti/miix, Lindl. in DC. Prodr. v. 232, a rigid and long- 

 branched form. Dry open grounds, Massachusetts to Florida, west to Michigan, Arkansas, 

 and Texas. 



Var. gracilis, HOOK. A foot or two high, more slender : heads and oblong to oval 

 leaves smaller and more scabrous. Comp. Bot. Mag. i. 97. Alabama to Texas, &c., a 

 common Southwestern form. 



Var. phlogifolitlS, NEES. The other extreme : leaves larger (cauliue 3 or 4 inches 

 long, an inch or more wide, softer and membranaceous), hardly scabrous, sometimes con- 

 tracted above an auriculate-dilated base: heads paniculate on shorter branches: iuvolucral 

 bracts in fewer ranks, almost glabrous. Ast. 49 ; Torr. & Gray, 1 c. A. phlogifolius, Muhl. 

 in Willd. iii. 2034; Nutt. Gen. ii. 156. A. alatus, Aikin in Eaton & Wright, Man. 146 ? 

 A. mirilnH, Lindl. in DC. 1. c., cultivated form, with thinner and lax involucre. In woods 

 or shady moist ground, New York to North Carolina and Tennessee. A part of J.. undulatus, 

 L., may belong here. 



