20 0. S. U. Naturalist. [Vol. 1, No, 2 



the season by cattle and horses it is true, does damag-e perhaps only 

 as the consumption of an excessive amount of almost any kind of 

 dry and comparatively innutritions vegetable matter might do. It 

 is said to be especially binding, and the constipation no doubt was a 

 factor in bringing about the fatal results that were cited. While 

 stock will eat the plant when at hand they take but little of it if 

 nutritious grasses can be found. A very intelligent and observant 

 farmer, however, was seen cutting and burning the plants which 

 covered his pastures to save his stock— his neighbor by carelessness 

 in this respect, he averred, having lost some valuable horses. 



On the other hand this White Heath Aster is an important bee- 

 plant. Bees will " work on it the whole day," and the plant is in 

 bloom from middle or late summer to late autumn. The honey made 

 is white, and has a strong tendency " to turn to sugar." One 

 farmer who has two hundred and fifty stands of bees, now that this 

 Bee-plant is well established as a sure crop, will sow no more buck- 

 wheat for his bees. 



I have said this species is becoming excessively abundant in 

 some (hilly) portions of southern Ohio. It can well be regarded as "a 

 great boon " merely because it is a soil-binder of marked efficiency. 

 It prevents the destructive washing of the hillsides in tlie Fall, open 

 winter and early spring. Such a plant would not be needed to a 

 great extent, were methods and habits of cultivation perfect or in a 

 high state of development; but this phase of the economic aspect of 

 the case must at present be insisted on. 



Finally it may be said that as a fertilizer this Steel-weed takes 

 a high rank. It is regarded by observant farmers as but slightly 

 inferior to a crop of clover. It does not decompose when turned 

 under as quickly as clover, but that it yields plant-food and an- 

 swers well the mechanical purposes of a coarse fertilizer, testimony 

 is unanimous and apparently conclusive. 



Explanation of Plate 3. — Aster ericoides pilosus, reproduced from photographs taken 

 late in November. Figures 1 and 2 show plants with abundant, and Figure 3, with few young 

 shoots close to the ground. Plants shown in Figures 1 and 2 had the tops removed in summer. 

 Figure 3 shows the common appearance at the end of the growing season of undisturbed plants. 



