SYNGENESIA— POLYGAMIA-SUPERF. Aster. 437 



gular, leafy, smooth, scarcely branched ; corymbose aTid many- 

 flowered at the summit. Leaves scattered, sessile, broadly lan- 

 ceolate, acute, copiously serrated, or somewhat toothed, bright 

 green, shining and apparently smooth, but when closely exa- 

 mined they are found covered with extremely minute, short, not 

 cottony or hoary, pubescence ; the upper ones gradually diminish 

 to narrow, or awl-shaped, bracteas. Ft. bright yellow, on se- 

 veral, corymbose, often subdivided, angular, downy stalks. Cal. 

 somewhat downy, the scales fringed and blackened at the tips -, 

 outer ones lanceolate. Florets of the radius several, but not 

 numerous, elliptic-oblong, scarcely more than simply notched 

 at the point. Seeds smooth, or slightly silky, short, obovate, 

 angular. Down copious, minutely rough. 

 The herb is astringent and acrid. How far it might serve the Sa- 

 racens as a vulnerary we know not, but it is not regarded as an 

 article of our Materia medica. Some foreign species, as S. Do- 

 ria and nemorensis, come near the present, rendering its syno- 

 nyms in old writers precarious, particularly when their cuts are 

 copied or borrowed from each other. Petiver's t. 16./. 7, bor- 

 rowed from Gerarde, belongs to S. Doria, known by the very 

 few radian t^ore^s. 



399. ASTER. Star-wort. 



Linn. Gen. 424. Juss.]8\. Ft. Br. 888. Tonrn.t.274. Lam. 

 t.68l. Gcertn. t. 170. 



Nat. Ord. see n. 396. 



Common Cal. imbricated ; innermost scales with prominent 

 points; lowermost spreading. Cor. compound, radiant; 

 jlorets of the disk numerous, perfect, tubular, with 5 equal 

 spreading segments; those of the radius more than 10, 

 ligulate, oblong, 3-toothed, finally revolute. Filam. in the 

 tubular florets only, capillary, short. AntJi. in a cylin- 

 drical tube. Germ, in all the florets fertile, oblong. Style 

 thread-shaped. Stigmas 2, oblong, spreading ; those of 

 the disk rather larger and thicker. Seed-vessel none, but 

 the scarcely altered, spreading calyx. Seed obovate. 

 Down sessile, capillary. Recept. naked, almost flat. 



A vast American genus, chiefly perennial, of which several 

 other countries possess a few species. The leaves are 

 simple. Radius blue, rarely white. We have only one 

 wild Aster. 



1. A. Tripolium. Sea Star- wort. 



Herbaceous, corymbose. Leaves lanceolate, entire, fleshy, 



smooth, obscurely three-ribbed. Calyx-scales obtuse, 



somewhat membranous. 



