COMPOSITE FAMILY 



vary in number from eight to fifteen. Helidnthus 

 decapetaluSy Wild Sunflower, is frequently a neighbor, 

 with alternate ovate leaves, bearing more heads than 

 divaricatus, but these having about the same number 

 of rays; its specific name ten-petaled is misleading. 



ASTER 



Aster 



The three genera which make up the bulk of our 

 autumn flowers are happily named: Goldenrod and 

 Sunflower are fitly companioned by Aster, the Star. 



As a group, few Asters frankly and freely bloom in 

 August, now and then an individual species under 

 favoring conditions comes into flower, as does the White 

 Wood Aster, Aster divaricatus, and one may find 

 here and there an open star amid the buds of many 

 species, notably Aster puniceus, the Early Purple- 

 stemmed Aster, and the New England Aster, Novcb 

 Anglice. 



But the Aster as unmistakably as the Fringed Gen- 

 tian and the Witch-Hazel belongs to the golden days 

 of autumn. 



274 



