Aster. COMPOSITE. 109 



si vely shorter ; raj's about 12; achenia cuneiform-oblong, moderately com- 

 pressed, minutely hairy. — Nutt. ! gen. 2. 'p. 158. 



Prairies of Kentucky & Tennessee, Nuttall ! Pine barrens of New Jersey ! 

 common. Sept. — Caudex usually tuberous, ynoducing runners and offsets. 

 Stems about a foot high, not scabrous or glandular, leafy, either simple and 

 bearing 5 to 9 heads in a terminal corymb (the central head almost sessile, 

 the lateral on slender spreading or divaricate peduncles) ; or with corymbose 

 flowering branches, each bearing 3 to 7 heads, all but the lateral or external 

 on very short pedicels. Leaves 1 to about 2 inches long, nearly coriaceous, 

 opaque, glabrous. Involucre almost exactly like Sericocarpus conyzoides ! 

 and about the same size ; the exterior scales subspatulate-oblong or linear- 

 oblong, somewhat ciliate ; the innermost linear, membranaceous. Heads 

 about 30-flowered. Rays violet ; the ligules exserted about the length of the 

 involucre. Achenia rather short, impressed-striate, clothed with short sparse 

 hairs. — Mr. Nuttall has correctly remarked the alliance of this plant to A. 

 spectabilis on the one hand (some forms of which it greatly resembles), and 

 to Sericocarpus conyzoides on the other : it almost connects the latter genus 

 •with Aster. 



9. A. surculosus (MIchx.) : stems several from the same surculose caudex, 

 slender, simple, minutely pubescent above ; leaves lanceolate, elongated, 

 acute, glabrous, the margin scabrous, entire or with a few slight subulate 

 teeth ; the lowermost tapering into a margine<l somewhat sheathing petiole ; 

 the upper ones linear, partly sheathing or clasping at the base ; heads 3-5 in 

 a simple corymb (sometimes solitary) ; involucre turbinate-hemispherical, 

 nearly as lon<r as the disk; the scales numerous, somewhat e(|ual in length, 

 pubescent, with spreading iierbaceous mostly mucronulate tips; the outer- 

 most lanceolate and chiefly foliaceous ; rays numerous; achenia linear, al- 

 most glabrous. — Mlchx. jl. 1. p. 112; Null.! gen. 2. p. 157; Nees, AsL 

 p. 40 ; DC. I. c. 



Woods, Burke County, N. Carolina, Michaux. Margins of open bushy 

 swamps in Tennessee, N. Carolina ! and Virginia, Nuttall. Wilmington, N. 

 Carolina, Natlali ! Mr. Curtis! Southern States, 7V/r. Croom ! Sept. — Rhi- 

 zoma creeping. Stems somewhat angled, 6-18incli6^shigh ; the summit, pedun- 

 cles &c. pubescent but not glandular. Leaves rather scattered, rigid, opaque 

 (the lower obscurely 3-nerved), Smooth and shining; the lower 4-6 inches 

 long, lanceolate or spatulate-lanceolate ; the cauline successively reduced to 

 one or two inches in length, often narrowly lanceolate-linear; the uppermost 

 confluent with the scales of the involucre. Heads as large as in A. specta- 

 bilis ; the rays long, linear, violet. Exterior scales of the involucre loose, 

 lanceolate ; the others linear-spatulate or narrowly cuneiform, rigid, white at 

 the base, the tips herbaceous, mucronulate ; the innermost nearly membra- 

 naceous. Achenia striate, slender, somewhat compressed. — The dwarfish 

 state of this species (which we believe to be Michaux's) approaches A. spec- 

 tabilis, while the most slender forms considerably resemble the very differ- 

 ent A. paludosus. 



10. A. paludosus (Ait.) : stem slightly puberulent or scabrous ; leaves 

 linear, entire, acute, rigid, partly claspino;, with the margins scabrous, often 

 fringed with bristly hairs near the base ; heads few, racemose, or terminating 

 the mostly simple axillary and somewhat racemose branches; involucre he- 

 mispherical, nearly the length of the disk, mostly bracteolate ; the scales nu- 

 merous, somewhat e(|ual in length, partly foliaceous, lanceolate or spalulate- 

 linear, mucronate, somewhat sijuarrose ; rays numerous; achenia linear-ob- 

 long, nearly glabrous. — Ait. Kew. (eel. 1) 3. p. 201 ; Pursh, Jl. 1. p. 547; 

 E/.L sk. 2. p. 343. A. srandinorus, Nutt..' gen. 2. p. 156; not of Linn. 

 Tripolium paludosum, Nees, Ast. p. 155. Diplopap])us paiuJosus, i^mul. ! 

 in herb. Hook. Sfc. Heleastrum paludosum, 1)C. ! prodr. 5. p. 264. 



