COMPOSITE FAMILY 



and is found in company with the Blue Wood 

 Aster, standing in groups or singly at the border 

 of the open wood. 



BLUE WOOD ASTER. PURPLE MIST 



Aster cordifolius 



Native, perennial. One of our most beauti- 

 ful and abundant Purple Asters standing in 

 open woods and shaded roadsides. New Bruns- 

 wick to Minnesota, south to Georgia and Mis- 

 souri. September-December. 



Stem. — Two to five feet high, slender, leafy, nearly 

 smooth, often stained with purple. 



Leaves. — Stem-leaves rather narrow, heart-shaped, 

 with long petioles, that are more or less margined, 

 sharply serrate, acute or acuminate. The upper leaves 

 ovate or lanceolate, serrate, and acute, the topmost 

 entire. 



Flower-heads. — Molet-blue, varying in size from a 

 ten-cent piece to a nickel, clustered on tiny branchlets, 

 making a full paniculate top. Rays fifteen to twenty, 

 violet-blue, deep or pale. Disk-florets yellow, reddish 

 purple with age. Involucre bell-shaped; bracts ap- 

 pressed and tipped with obtuse green points. Pappus 

 white. 



72 



