ge 
15. Aster (Tourn.) Le. Aster 
Perennial herbs with horizontal rootstocks or rarely with a branching 
caudex and leafy stems, the leaves alternate, the basal ones mostly ob- 
lanceolate or spatulate, passing into the sessile linear, elliptical or 
oblong usually-clasping stem leaves, Heads commonly corymbose, frequently 
in elongate panicles, their involucral tracts mostly in several series, the 
outer wholly Restade uss frequently subfoliar, the inner commonly with 
herbaceous tips, more or less chaffy below, or all with herbaceous tips; 
receptacle naked, Ray-flowers pistillate, commonly violet-blue or lavender, 
less often rose-purple or white, their limbs mostly more than 1 mm, wide, 
Disc-flowers perfect, yellowish, becoming more or less tinged with purple 
or blue. Achenes wedge-shaped or oblanceolate, more or less flattened, 
smooth or ribbed; pappus a single series of slender barbed bristles, 
O Ja Bracts and branches of inflorescence glandular with short-stalked 
4 glands 
© Bracts only glandular, not ciliate with soft hairs 
4A Upper surfaces of leaves scabrous with short 
) sharp hairs; upper stem leaves prevailingly 
elliptical, distinctly narrowed both ways 
8 from the middle, some usually toothed above 
the middle le Ae modestus 
4 Upper surfaces of leaves glabrous or thinly pubescent 
with spreading hairs, the upper stem leaves 
prevailingly entire, oblong, commonly broadest 
near the base, or if somewhat broader near the 
Laas 
micdle, somewhat concave below Ce A, integrifolius 
2 Bracts sparingly glandular on the backs, their margins 
b ciliate with soft hairs de A. conspicuus 
