CARDUACEAE • 1211 



indric ; bracts broad, ciliate, the rounded or subtruncate tips with a broad green spot : disk 

 turning reddish brown. 



In open woodlands and thickets, in rather dry soil, Canada to Manitoba, Georgia and Tennes- 

 see. Fall. 



2. Aster tenebrosus Burgess. Stem glabrate, striate, wide-branched : leaf-blades 

 large, very thin and smooth, broadly oblong and conspicuously cut with coarse remote 

 acuminate curvescent teeth, then abruptly long-acuminate and entire ; most leaves with a 

 broad rounded sinus and slender petiole ; those of the inflorescence prolonged, lanceolate, 

 subentire and sessile : inflorescence broadly corymbose, often proliferously branched : rays 

 long, usually 9-12 : disk pale yellow, turning purplish brown : outer bracts green, acute, 

 elongated-triangular, the others linear, obtusish. Resembles ^4. divaricatus L. , but is larger 

 and thinner in all its parts, and with a different leaf-form. 



In moist shaded places, Massachusetts and Lake Erie to North Carolina. Late summer and fall. 



3. Aster stilettiformis Burgess. Stem greenish, slender, weak and often decumbent : 

 predominant leaf-blades deep green, often roughened above, linear-oblong and long-acumi- 

 nate, with subtruncate base and short petioles, and closely set with conspicuous sharp 

 straight-backed teeth ; some lower leaves broader, ovate-acuminate with moderate sinus and 

 with double-curved or couchant teeth ; axile leaves divaricate, straight-tapered from a ses- 

 sile truncate base, everywhere closely slit-toothed, suggesting a barbed stiletto : inflorescence 

 remotely diffused, but with short pedicels : bracts lingual, nearly uniform, green or mostly 

 so : rays often 7, sometimes reddening at the tips : disks turning brownish red. Differs 

 from A. divaricatus L., especially in leaf -form, bracts and stem. 



On shaded banks, Massachusetts to South Carolina and Tennessee. Fall. 



4. Aster excavitus Burgess. Stems as in A. divaricatus L. : leaf-blades thin, smooth, 

 all nearly alike, oblong-lanceolate with the rounded base abruptly excavated into a deep 

 narrow sinus ; their margins continuously low-serrate with curvescent teeth ; petioles very 

 short and slender, shorter than the leaf-breadth, replaced by short broad wings at the prin- 

 cipal axils ; the upper axils often clasped by divaricate triangular-linear bracteals : heads 

 forming convex clusters borne on long suberect branches or reduced to a few distant en- 

 larged heads : bracts ciliate, smooth-backed, pale and thin, short-oblong and obtuse on 

 some subsolitary heads, narrow and acutish on the smaller clustered heads, the inner at- 

 tenuate and without green tips : rays white, or sometimes reddened : disk broad, turning 

 usually purplish-crimson. Resembles A. divaricatus L., but the narrower less-attenuate 

 more uniform leaves differ in outline, sinus and teeth. 



In mountain or hillside woods, New York to North Carolina and Georgia. Early fall. 



5. Aster castaoeus Burgess. Stem glabrate, terete, graceful and wandlike, reddisli- 

 brown or greenish, with about 12 delicate straight darker striae, and becoming sinuous in 

 the inflorescence : predominant leaf-blades dull green, remote, very thin, of a dense and 

 hard texture, minutely granular-roughened when dry, ovate-lanceolate, closely slit-serrate, 

 often unequally decurrent upon the short slender petiole ; the lowest leaves much shorter, 

 ovate-acuminate, coarsely serrate and with a moderate sinus ; rameal leaves lanceolate- 

 attenuate or often all crescent-like and decurved, sessile by a short cuneate base : inflo- 

 rescence nearly naked, narrow, composed of several upcurved slender unequal branches 

 bearing close convex clusters, all in flower at once and very short-lived : pedicels long, 

 filiform, upcurved, sometimes bearing small circular bracteals or discules : bracts narrow, 

 linear-obtuse, pale, with bright-green tips : rays often 9, linear, snow-white, excessively 

 thin, and soon pendulous : disks soon turning to rose-brown, sienna or chestnut-color. 

 Resembles A. divaricatus L. ; differs in all the above characters, especially in form of in- 

 florescence, bracts and leaves. 



In clayey spots, swamps, near New York City ; also Connecticut and Lake Erie to North Caro- 

 lina. Early fall. 



6. Aster chlordlepis Burgess. Stem strong, glabrate, brownish, terete below, angu- 

 late-striate above : leaf-blades large, smooth, very thin, brownish green, pale beneath, 

 ovate-acute, very coarsely serrate with outflung teeth ; sinus deep and sharp ; petioles short, 

 slender: axile leaves also large, oblong-lanceolate, serrate with long forward-directed teeth, 

 the upper ones sessile : inflorescence loose and irregular : heads large, long-peduncled, 

 inclined to be widely separated : rays nearly twice the length of the involucre : bracts 

 quite uniform, thick, broad, short and scale-like, with very little ciliation or hair, chiefly 

 golden brown with a short broad dark-green rounded tip : disks turning crimson. Resem- 

 bles A. tenebrosus in its large heads, leaves, teeth and bracts ; differs especially in having 

 the sinus sharp, and bracts rounded, and in the absence of greatly prolonged entire bracteals. 



In the mountains. New York, West Virginia, and North Carolina, reaching altitudes respectively 

 of 300, 1,000 and 1,850 meters. Fall. 



7. Aster Boyklnii Burgess. Stems slender, greenish and glabrate, much flexed ; 

 leaf-blades ovate to oblong-acuminate, with broad enlarged sinus, set with strong and 



