Aster. COMPOSITE. 185 



iu Proc. Am. Acad. xvi. 99. — Rocky islands and shores, northern part of Lake Chamjjlain, 



Prin</le, E. Brainard. 



•^— ^— -1— Involucre of the numerous small and racemosfb/ disposed heads with squarrose or at 

 least spreading herbaceous tijis to the well-imbricated unequal bracts, these tips obtuse or merely 

 mucronate-apiculate : cauline leaves small, all linear and entire, not at all or scarcely narrowed 

 at the abrupt closely sessile or parih' clasping base: akcnes canesceut-hirsute : herbage with 

 somewhat cinereous or hirtellous pubescence. — Mtdtifluri. 



+-i- Ra3's amethystine-violet or purple : leaves not rigid. 

 A. ametll^stinus, Nutt. Cinereously puberuleut or the stems hirsutulous, 2 to 5 feet 

 higii, paniculately much branclied : heads 3 lines high : tips of involucral bracts merely 

 spreading, acutish, not ciliate : rays rather numerous, 3 lines long. — Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. 

 (n. ser.) vii. 294; Torr. & Gray, PI. ii. 144 ; Gray, Man. ed. 5, 234. — Rather low grounds, 

 E. Massachusetts to Illinois and Iowa. This has been cult, in European gardens under the 

 names of A. pilosus and Bosloniensis. It has much the liabit of A. oblong ifoUus, but is desti- 

 tute of viscidity and aroma. 



++ ++ Rays white, rarely bluish or purple-tinged. 



A. multiflorus, Ait. Low (a foot or two high), bushy-branched, cinereous or green : leaves 

 rigid, scai)rous- or hispidulou.s-ciliate ; uppermost of the branchlets passing into involucral 

 bracts ; these mostly with obtuse tips : heads in the ordinary forms little over 2 (at most 3) 

 lines long, and with only 10 to 15 or 20 rays. — Kew. iii. 203 ; AA'illd. Spec. iii. 2027 ; Torr. & 

 Gray, El. ii. 124, with var. stricticaulis, a slender strict form of tlie Korth. A. ericoides, dumosus, 

 Dill. Elth. t. 36. A. ericoides, L. spec, as to syn. Dill.; Michx. El. ii. 113; Schk. Handh. 

 t. 245, & (var. multijloras) Pers. Syn. ii. 443. A. ciliatus, Mulil. iu Willd. Spec. iii. 2027. 

 A. scoparius, DC. Prodr. v. 242, a rather strict slender-leaved Texan form. A. hebecladus, 

 DC 1. c., a very small-leaved hirtellous Texano-Arizonian form. — Dry or sterile ground, 

 Canada to Georgia and Texas, common throughout Atlantic States, southwest to Arizona, 

 nortliwest to Saskatchewan and Brit. Columbia. (Mex.) The most wide-spread species. 



A. comniutatus. A foot or so high, with divergent branches : heads more scattered and 

 twice or even thrice the size of those of A. midtiflorus (3 or 4 lines high and broad) : raj's 

 20 to 30 : otherwise nearly as the preceding. — A. m^dtijiorus, var. commutaias, Torr. & Gray, 

 1. c, excl. syn. A. biennis, Torr. Ann. Lye. N. Y., at least mainly. A. ramulosiis, var. incano- 

 pilosus, Lindl. in DC. Prodr. 1. c. & Hook. El. ii. 12. — Plains and river-banks, Dakota and 

 Saskatchewan, to Utah and E. Oregon. Seems to pass into the preceding on one hand, and 

 into A. adscendens on the other. 



A. falcatus, Lindl. Much like a strict and simple-stemmed A. multijhrus, perhaps a high 

 nortlicrn form of it : leaves all narrowly linear, glalirate or sparingly and minutely (and the 

 stem more obviou.sly) puliescent with soft somewhat appressed hairs; invqlucre broader, 

 glabrous; its bracts tliinner and looser; outer lierbaceous to near the base and as long as the 

 attenuate innermost. — Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 126. A. falcatus & A. ramulosus (as to the type), 

 Lindl. in DC. Prodr. v. 241, 243, & Hook. Fl. ii. 12. — Subarctic America, from Cumberland 

 House to Fort Franklin, near the Arctic Circle and Arctic coast, Richardson. 



4- H— -)— -(— Involucre of the small (2 or 3 Inies high) and numerous heads nearly of tlie 

 Heterophylli, pluriterial; the bracts not coriaceous, regularly and closely imbricated (outer suc- 

 cessively shorter), smooth and glabrous, mostly whitish below and with deliuite short green 

 tips, these not spreading: stems usually slender and not very fall; the branches divergent or di- 

 varicate (except in A. racemosus), and racemosely branched or racemoscly capituhfcrous: leaves 

 from lanceolate to subulate, not cinereous nor more thau minutely scabrous, connnoiily spread- 

 ing: all Atlantic species. — Diverr/enles. 

 •H- Heads more scattered and singly terminating the racemose or compound-paniculate minutely 

 foliose slender branches. 

 A. dumosus, L. Mostly quite glabrous and smooth, 1 to 3 feet higli : leaves all entire and 

 obLu.se, commonly reflexed or widely spreading ; the cauline linear (1 to 3 inches long and as 

 many lines wide), of ratlier firm texture ; those of brandies and branchlets gradually smaller 

 and shorter; ultimate ones reduced to minute bracts: involucre campanulate or short-turbi- 

 nate (2 or 3 lines long), well imbricated and with very definite and broadish oval or oblong 

 green tips to the obtuse or sometimes barely acutish bracts : rays from violet to nearly 

 white, 2 lines long. — Spec. ii. 873 (with syn. maiuly) ; Ait. Kew. iii. 202 ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. 



