CHINA ASTER. 847 



CHINA ASTER, or CHINESE STAR- 

 AVORT. Aster Chinensis. 



Natural Order Compositi Radiati. Corymbifcrce airJ 

 Radiati, Juss. A Genus of the Syngaiesia Poly- 

 gamia Siiperjlua Class. 



As from a cloud his fulgent head 

 And shape star, bright appeared. 



The numerous family of radiated flowers were 

 named Aster, from the Greek 'Ao-t-^^, a star. The 

 French call this autumnal flower Reine Marguerite^ 

 Queen Daisy, and not Queen Margaret, as it is 

 generally translated, Marguerite being their name 

 for ^' the Star-like Daisy." The Chinese generic 

 term for this flower is Keang nam fa. 



The European parterres are indebted to the 

 missionary. Father dTncarville, for the gay robe 

 which this various coloured flower throws over 

 them, during the latter months of Flora's reign, — • 

 he having sent the seeds from China to the Royal 

 Garden of Paris about the year 1730, where the 

 plants produced only simple flowers of one uniform 

 colour, but which, through cultivation and change 

 of soil, soon became both so doubled in petals, and 



