Aster. COMPOSITiE. 183 



* 8. Heads and inflorescence various: no cordate petiolcd loaves; radical leaves all acute or at- 

 tenuate at base: not glandular nor viscid, nor silky-canescent: akcnes compressed, few-nervod. 

 — IIoMOPHYLLi, Nees. 



-I— Whole plant very smooth and glabrous (sometimes liispidulous roughness on leaf-margins or a 

 little pubescence on branchlets or pedui;eles): involucre of middle-sized or rather large iieads 

 pluriserial, from turbinate to campanulate, of rather firm closely imbricated appressed bracts 

 with short green tips, outer successively shorter: leaves of firm texture, entire, or sometimes 

 with a few teeth: rays of the showy heads violet or blue, rarely pale. — Lo'ves. 



•H- Typical species, usually pale and glauccscent or glaucous; with involucral bracts whitish-coria- 

 ceous below and abruptly green-tipped (most conspicuous in dried specimens): akenes 4-5- 

 ribbed: leaves on flowering branchlets commonly much reduced to rigid subulate bracts. 



A. turbinellus, Lindl. Slender, 3 feet high, diffusely p.aniculate above : leaves light 

 green, not rigiil, from oblong to narrowl}' lanceolate, and all with narrow base (2 or 3 inches 

 long), scabrous-ciliolate : heads (half-inch or more high) terminating divergent and minutely 

 bracteolate slender branchlets : involucre elongated-turbinate or subclavate ; its many-ranked 

 bracts with very short and obtuse green tips : rays a third to half inch long, bright blue- 

 violet : akenes minutely pubescent. — Comp. Bot. Mag. i. 98, & DC. Prodr. v. 244 ; Torr. & 

 Gray, Fl. ii. 117. — Hillsides and plains, Illinois and Missouri to W. Arkansas and Louisiana. 

 Handsome species, flowering late. 



A. virgatus, Ell. Slender, strict and simple, with few or several racemose heads, or with 

 virgate branches terminated with single heads; these and the flowers nearly as of A. Iwi-is: 

 cauline leaves lanceolate or linear, of firm texture, little if at all dilated at base ; lower ones 

 usirally long and narrow; those of the branchlets subulate-acute and rigid. — Sk. ii. 353; 

 Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 116; Chapm. Fl. 201. A. vimineus, Willd. Spec. iii. 2046? (fide herb., 

 but a peculiar and imperfect specimen), not Lam. nor Nees. A. purpuratus, Nees, Ast. 118, 

 & A. miser, Lam. Diet. i. 308. A. attenuatus, Liudl. in Comp. Bot. Mag. i. 97. A. (jracilentus, 

 Torr. t& Gray, 1. c. 166. — Upper S. Virginia to Louisiana and Texas. Form with narrow 

 and linear leaves (lower 3 or 4 inches long by 2 or 3 lines wide) seems very distinct : broader- 

 leaved forms pass into the next. 



A. leevis, L. Stouter, 2 to 4 feet high, rigid : leaves from ovate or oblong to lanceolate (4 or 

 .5 inches long, decreasing upward) ; radical and lowest cauline contracted below into a winged 

 petiole; npper all with auriculatc or subcordate partly clasping base: heads sparsely tbyr- 

 soid-paniculate, on short and rigid branchlets : involucre campanulate or obscurely turbinate ; 

 the whitish coriaceous bracts bearing abrupt rhomboid or deltoid short green tips : rays 

 20 or 30, broadish, sky-blue verging to violet : akenes glabrous or nearly so. — Spec. ii. 876 ; 

 Ait. Kew. iii. 206 ; Nees, Ast. 128, partly; Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 116 (the var. j3 is the typical 

 plant) ; Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. xvii. 166. A. ruhricauUs, Lam. Diet. i. 305 ; Nees, Ast. 131. 

 A. amplexicaulis, Muhl. in Willd. Spec. iii. 2046 ; Nees, 1. c., not of others. A. Pennsyl- 

 vanicus, Poir. Suppl. i. 498. A. ci/aneus, Hoffm. Phyt. Blatt. 71, t. B, f. 1 ; Nees, 1. c. ; 

 Lindl. Bot. Reg. t. 1495. A. glauccscens & A. politus, Nees, Synops. 23. A. Icevirjatus, Hook. 

 Bot. Mag. t. 2995, not Lam. nor Willd. — Borders of woodland, in dry or barely moist 

 ground, Canada to Louisiana and west to the Rocky Mountains from Saskatchewan to New- 

 Mexico. A form from Fort Edward, N. Y. ( Vandcrberg), bore white rays changing to rose. 



Var. Geyeri. A foot or two high : involucre broader and less imbricated ; its bracts 

 of thinner texture, mostly attenuate-acute, tlie green tip less definite. — Valleys of the 

 Northern Rocky Mountains to Idaho, south to W^j'oming, &c. 

 ++ ++ Ambiguous species, green, at least not glaucous: involucre greener and somewhat looser. 



A. versicolor, Willd. Leafy up to the more corymbosely disposed inflorescence: leaves 

 thinner tiiau in preceding, bright green, oblong-lanceolate, obscurely if at all auriculate and 

 not broadened at insertion, lower With some sharp serratures : involucre short-campanulate : 

 rays " changing from white to deep violet," or commonly pale or bright violet from tlie 

 first. — Spec. iii. 2045 & Enum. ii. 885; Nees, Ast. 128. A. Imvigatus, Willd. 1. c. 2046 (in 

 part) ; Nees, 1. c. 129, not Lam. ^i. hrvis of the same authors, Lindl. Bot. Reg. t. 1500. A. 

 mutabilis, Willd. 1. c. 2045; Nees, 1. c. 125. A. confertus, Nees, Ast. 146, white-fl. state. — 

 Common in European gardens, doubtless from Atlantic N. America ; but decisive indige- 

 nous specimens hardly known. 



A. COncinnus, Willd. Stem and paniculate branches slender, 1 to 3 foot liigh (above 

 often showing traces of pubescence iu lines) : leaves pale green, lanceolate, mostly some- 



