Aster. COMPOSITE. 175 



A. macroph^Uus, L. Stem stout, somewhat striate-angled, 2 or 3 feet high : leaves 

 tliifkish, serrate with proportionally smaller and broader less .salient teeth, abruptly actimi- 

 iiate ; radical and lowest usually broadly ovate- or even reuiform-cordate (4 to 10 inelies long) ; 

 upper ovate to oblong, often wiug-petioled, and uppermost sometimes sessile by a broad 

 base : involucre commouly 5 lines high, often viscid-puberulent, in fruit much surpassing the 

 fusiform-linear obscurely compressed akenes : rays 10 to 15, white or tinged with bluish 

 purple. — Spec. ed. 2, ii. 1232; Willd. 1. c. ; Torr. & Gray, 1. c. Eurijbiu mncrophijUa & 

 E. Jussiei, Cass. Diet. 1. c. E. macrophijlla (larger-leaved and more scabrous form), glome- 

 rala, & Schreheri (thinner-leaved form in shade and drier soil), Nees, Ast. 140. Bio/ia 

 Schreheri, lutifolia (A. lutifohits, Uesf. Cat., form approaching A. corymhosus), gloinerata, 

 & mucrophijiiu, DC. 1. c. — Woodlands, commoulv iu damp or rich soil, from Canada and 

 Manitoba to the mountains of Georgia. Variable species ; of which forms with smaller 

 heads and thinner leaves appear to pass into ^4. corymhosus. A robu-st form, with large 

 heads, more glanditlar involucre and peduncles, upper leaves ovate and sessile, lower and 

 petioled cauline leaves all rounded at base, and most of the radical ones little cordate [A. 

 macrophyllns of Willd. herb, chiefly, tlie rays perhaps violet), comes near the next following. 



§ 6. Aster proper. Heads various : bracts of the involucre (or at least the ' 

 outer ones) with green herbaceous tips or appendages, or wholly or partly foli- 

 aceous, imbricated or pluriserial, their margins not scarious : akenes from obov/ite- 

 oblong to linear, 3-several-nerved : pappus rather fine and soft, or in the first 

 subsection more coarse and rigid, simple, i. e. with no exterior setulose series. — 

 § Aster proper, with part of Oriti-opliluni &, Calliastrum, Torr. & Gray, Fl, 

 Probable hybrids abound. 



* 1. Involucre well imbricated; the bracts appressed and coriaceous, with short and al'rnpt mostly 

 obtuse herbaceous or foliaceous spreading tips (the outermost sometimes loose and more foli- 

 aceous); akenes narrow. 5-10-nerved, from minutely pubescent to glabrous: pappus mostly 

 more rigid than m anj- of the following: rays showy, blue or violet: leaves of firm texture, 

 more or less scabro'us (the last species excepted), none of them cordate or clasping (§ Calli- 

 astruni, Torr & Gray, Fl. ii. 106, excl. spec). — Spectabiles. 



-I— Radical and lowest cauline leaves ovate or ovate-oblong, some with rounded base, or even sub- 

 cordate: heads half-inch high: involucre nearly hemispherical; the green tips of the in volucral 

 bracts very short and eitlier indistinct and erect or abruptly spreading: stems a foot or two 

 high. Transition to Biotia, possibly hybrids of the preceding species with true Asters, being 

 local and rare, but if so the other parent not at al! determinable. 



A. mirabilis, Toer & Gray. Scabrous-pubescent, bearing few or several somewhat panicu- 

 late heads : leaves all ovate or oval, finely and acutely serrate, liispidulous-scabrous above : 

 upper small and roundish, lower abruptly contracted into margined petioles (tru^adical not 

 seen ) : involucre nearly smooth and glabrous, neither glandular nor viscid ; its bracts with 

 roundish-obtuse altrupt and very short squarrose-sprcading tips : rays about 20, half-inch 

 long, violet: pappus ferruginous. — Fl. ii. 165. — Near Columbia, S. Carolina, Gibbes, Sept., 

 1835, not since collected. 



A. Herveyi, Gray. Slightly scabrous, the corymbose branches and short peduncles glandu- 

 lar-pnl)erulent . leaves minutely or obscurely serrate; radical and lowest cauline ovate on 

 slender naked petioles; upper lanceolate: heads loosely corymbiform-cymose : iuvolucral 

 bracts all erect and with less distinct close tips, pulverulent-glandular ; the short outer oblong- 

 linear: rays 15 to 24, narrow, half-inch long, lilac or violet. — Man. ed. 5, 230. Euryhia 

 commixta, Nees, Ast. 143. Biotui commi.rta, DC. Prodr v. 265 (excl. syn. ■?), is a robust culti- 

 vated form of this, which lias long been in the gardens, of unknown origin. — Borders of 

 oak woods, E. Mass. and Rhode Island, near the coast, Hervey, Sargent, &c. Grows in com- 

 pany with A. macrophyl/us and ^l. spectahilis, evidently most related to the former, both in 

 foliage and involucre: fl. Aug., Sept. 



-i— -I— Radical leaves all tapering at base into winged or margined petioles. 



++ Involucre squarrose by the spreading or recurving herbaceous tips of the bracts: akenes 

 slender, slightly pubescent: leaves obscureh' veined, slightly scabrous: rootslocks slender and 

 creeping: stems low, bearing few or several (rarely solitary) short-peduncled and showy heads. 

 Atlantic U. S. species. 



