110 COMPOSITE. Aster. 



Wet ])ine barrens and swamps, from North Carolina ! to Florida ! Lou- 

 isiana ! and Arkansas ! Aug.-Oct. — Stems 1-2 feet high. Leaves coria- 

 ceous, somewhat erect, 2-4 inches long, 2-3 lines wide, pointed, strongly 1- 

 nerved, or with 2 obscure lateral nerves; the uppermost often concave. 

 Heads large (the disk half of an inch in diameter), usually 3 to 8 dis- 

 posed in a somewhat racemose manner on short nearly naked peduncles, 

 sometimes axillary on very short peduncles, forming a kind of spike ; but 

 the lower peduncles, or branchlets, often elongated, so as to become corym- 

 bose, or branching and paniculate. Exterior scales of the involucre usually 

 loose and bracteolate, or passing into the bracteate leaves which subtend the 

 head, almost entirely foliaceous, somewhat ciliate ; the innermost with the 

 tips only herbaceous, or sometimes colored. Rays (about 24) nearly an inch 

 long, deep blue. Pappus tawny, rather rigid ; the bristles unequal ; the 

 larger ones gradually thickened upwards so as to appear slightly clavate 

 under a lens, but scarcely more so than in the preceding species. Achenia 

 glabrous, or slightly pubescent when young, somewhat angled and striate, 

 slender, scarcely compressed. — This species is, we believe, confined to the 

 Southern States. Mr. Nuttall's A. paludosus is probably a form of our 

 A. elodes. What can be the plant from Northern British America mentioned 

 by Dr. Richardson under this name ? 



11.? A. Curtisii : smooth and glabrous; stem (apparently) simple, leafy, 

 slightly corymbose or racemose at the summit ; the branches short, rigid, 

 bearing single or few heads ; leaves lanceolate, sessile, attenuate-acute, ser- 

 rate, with scabrous or somewhat ciliate margins ; the lowermost tapering 

 into a winged petiole ; scales of the hemispherical involucre oblong or slight- 

 ly spatulate, unequal, imbricated in about 4 series, coriaceous, with con- 

 spicuous abruptly foliaceous squarrose-reflexed summits ; achenia narrow, 

 glabrous. 



On Table Mountain &c. N. Carolina, Mr. M. A. Curtis /—Stem strict, 

 apparently 2 to 3 feet high, smooth throughout, leafy to the summit, with a 

 few short spreading flowering branches, which bear single or 3-5 racemose 

 heads ; the lateral ones on short pedicels. Leaves somewhat membrana- 

 ceous, tapering to a very acute point, entirely smooth on both sides, or slight- 

 ly scabrous next the margins of the upper surface or near the apex, pale 

 beneath, with rather prominent reticulated veinlets; all but the uppermost 

 conspicuously but somewhat irregularly serrate, the base and apex entire ; 

 the lowermost (radical unknown) about 4 inches long and two thirds of an 

 inch wide, narrowed rather abruptly into a margined or winged petiole, 

 coarsely serrate ; the upper similar, but narrower and less tapering at the 

 base ; the uppermost closely sessile, often entire ; those of the branchlets 

 minute and bract-like, thickish, obtuse. Heads about as large as those of 

 A. spectabilis, subglobose. Scales of the involucre numerous, white and cori- 

 aceous below, appressed ; the foliaceous summits (oval or lanceolate, often 

 acute) abruptly squarrose or recurved, sometimes equal in length to the ap- 

 pressed portion. Rays large, 20 or more, blue or purple. Bristles of the 

 pappus slender, rather soft, the inner series very obscurely thickened up- 

 wards. — We have but two specimens of this apparently well-marked species, 

 collected we believe in ditlerent localities, neither of which are so perfect as 

 could be desired. Perhaps it belongs to the Grandiflori, rather than to the 

 present division. 



§ 3. Scales of the involucre i?nbricated in various degrees, with herbaceous or 

 foliaceous tips, or the exterior entirely herbaceous : receptacle alveolate : 

 rays numerous: ajjpendages of the style lanceolate: bristles of the pappus 

 capillary {soft) and nearly uniform, none of them thickened at the apex : 

 achenia compressed. — ^Aster proper. 



La^jt^/ S^' 



