THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 101 



"Thou comest not when violets lean 

 O'er wandering brooks and springs unseen, 

 Or columbines in purple dressed, 

 Nod o'er the ground bird's hidden nest. 

 Thou waitest late and comest alone 

 When woods are bare and birds are flown, 

 And frosts and shortening days portend, 

 The aged years is near his end." 

 It may be that the aster does not wait till all the other 

 flowers are gone before it makes its appearance, but it stays 

 later than the other autumn flowers, and at least the smooth 

 aster of the prairies and the wood aster lingers long after the 

 golden rods and the sunflowers have said farewell. 



If we go for a walk in the vicinity of the writers home we 

 may get acquainted with many beautiful species. In the woods 

 we find the blue wood aster (A. cordifoliiis) which, though it 

 may not be as showy as some, is very pretty. But the kind 

 that will probably first catch our attention is the New England 

 aster {A. novae angliae) which, while being abundant on the 

 prairies is also found along borders of woods and woodea road- 

 sides. This, our largest flowered, is also considered by some, 

 our handsomest species. Whatever difference of opinion 

 there may be in regard to this, in speaking of the common form 

 with violet-purple flowers, it is hard to deny this distinction to 

 the form with rose-colored heads (var. roseus) which how- 

 ever is of rare occurrence at least in this vicinity. Another 

 species that we may find in low open woods and thickets is the 

 purple stem aster (A. piiniceus) with rather large, pale lilac- 

 blue or almost white flowers. Before we leave the woods we 

 must also look for the starved a^ter {A. lateriftonis). This 

 has rather small white or bluish heads. In low ground we 

 find the panicled aster {A. paniculatus) with white flowers and 

 leaves resmbling those of the black willow. A rarer and hand- 

 somer species is the amethyst aster {A. amethystinns) with 

 blue heads also found in rather low ground. 



