Aster. COMPOSITE. 175 



A. macroph^llus, L. Stem stout, somewhat striate-angled, 2 or 3 feet high .- leaves 

 thickish, serrate with proportionally smaller and broader less salient teeth, abruptly acumi- 

 nate ; radical aud lowest usually broadly ovate- or even reniform-cordate (4 to 10 inches loug) ; 

 upper ovate to oblong, often wiug-petioled, and uppermost sometimes sessile by a broad 

 base : involucre commonly 5 lines high, often viscid-puberulent, in fruit much surpassing the 

 fusiform-linear obscurely compressed akenes: rays 10 to 15, white or tinged with bluish 

 purple. Spec. ed. 2, ii. 1232; Willd. 1. c. ; Torr. & Gray, 1. c. Ettrybia mucrophylla & 

 E. Jussiei, Cass. Diet. 1. c. E. macrophylla (larger-leaved and more scabrous form), <//<//; - 

 rala, & Schreberi (thinner-leaved form in shade and drier soil), Nees, Ast. 140. Biotia 

 Schreberi, lutifo/ta (A. latifolius, Desf. Cat., form approaching A. corijmbosus], ylomcrata, 

 & macrophylia, DC. 1. c. Woodlands, commonly in damp or rich soil, from Canada and 

 Manitoba to the mountains of Georgia. Variable species; of which forms with smaller 

 heads and thinner leaves appear to pass into A. corymbosus. A robust form, with large 

 heads, more glandular involucre and peduncles, upper leaves ovate and sessile, lower and 

 petioled cauliue leaves all rounded at base, and most of the radical ones little cordate (A. 

 macrophyllus of Willd. herb, chiefly, the rays perhaps violet), comes near the next following. 



6. ASTER proper. Heads various : bracts of the involucre (or at least the 

 outer ones) with green herbaceous tips or appendages, or wholly or partly foli- 

 aceous, imbricated or pluriserial, their margins not scarious : akenes from obovate- 

 oblong to linear, 3-several-nerved : pappus rather fine and soft, or in the first 

 subsection more coarse and rigid, simple, i. e. with no exterior setulose series. - 

 Aster proper, with part of Oritrophium & Calliastmm, Torr. & Gray, Fl. 

 Probable hybrids abound. 



* 1. Involucre well imbricated; the bracts apprcssed and coriaceous, with short and abrupt mostly 

 obtuse herbaceous or foliaceous spreading tips (the outermost sometimes loose aud more foli- 

 aceous): akenes narrow, 5-10-nerved, from minutely pubescent to glabrous: pappus mostly 

 more rigid than in any of the following: rays showy, blue or violet: leaves of firm texture, 

 more or less scabrous (the last species excepted), none of them cordate or clasping ( Calli- 

 astrum, Torr & Gray, Fl. ii. 106, excl. spec.). SPKCTABILES. 



4 Radical and lowest cauliue leaves ovate or ovate-oblong, some with rounded base, or even sub- 

 cordate : heads half-inch high: involucre nearly hemispherical; the green tips of the involucral 

 bracts very short and either indistinct and erect or abruptly spreading: steins a foot or two 

 high. Transition to Biotia, possibly hybrids of the preceding species with true Asters, being 

 local and rare, but if so the other parent not at all dererminable. 



A. mirabilis, TORR & GRAY. Scabrous-pubescent, bearing few or several somewhat panicu- 

 late heads : leaves all ovate or oval, finely and acutely serrate, hispidulous-scabrous above ; 

 upper small and roundish, lower abruptly contracted into margined petioles (true radical not 

 seen): involucre nearly smooth and glabrous, neither glandular nor viscid; its bracts with 

 roundish-obtuse abrupt and very short squarrose-spreading tips : rays about 20, half-inch 

 long, violet: pappus ferruginous. Fl. ii. 165. Near Columbia, S. Carolina, Gibbes, Sept., 

 1835, not since collected. 



A. Herveyi, GRAY. Slightly scabrous, the corymbose branches and short peduncles gland u- 

 lar-puberuleut : leaves miuutely or obscurely serrate; radical and lowest cauline ovate on 

 slender naked petioles ; upper lanceolate : heads loosely corymbiform-cymose : iuvolucral 

 bracts all erect and with less distinct close tips, pulverulent-glandular ; the short outer oblong- 

 linear: rays 15 to 24, narrow, half -inch long, lilac or violet. Man. ed. 5, 230. Eurybiu 

 comtnixtaJ'Nees, Ast. 143. Biotia commixta, DC. Prodr v. 265 (excl. syu. ?), is a robust culti- 

 vated form of this, which has long been in the gardens, of unknown origin. Borders of 

 oak woods, E. Mass, and Rhode Island, near the coast, Herrey, Sargent, &c. Grows in com- 

 pany with A. macrophyllus and A spectabil/s, evidently most related to the former, both in 

 foliage and involucre: fl. Aug., Sept. 



4_ .,__ Radical leaves all tapering at base into winged or margined petioles. 



M- Involucre squarrose by the spreading or recurving herbaceous tips of the bracts: akenes 

 slender, slightly pubescent: leaves obscurely veined, slightly scabrous: rootstocks slender and 

 creeping: stems low, bearing few or several (rarely solitary) short-pedmicled and showy heads. 

 Atlantic U. S. species. 



