176 COMPOSITE. Aster. 



A. spectabilis, Ait. A foot or more high, bearing several somewhat paniculate or cymose 

 heads • leaves obloug-lauceolate or the lower spatulate- or oval-obloug, obscurely serrate or 

 the upper entire involucre hemispherical, hall-inch high ; the bracts glamlular-puberuleut 

 and somewhat viscid, upper half of most of them herbaceous and recurved-spreadiug : rays 

 numerous, three-fourths inch long or more, bright violet. — Kew. iii. 209 ; Isutt. Gen. ii. 157 ; 

 Isees, Ast. 42; Liudl. Bot. Reg. t. 1527 ; Torr. FI. N. Y. i. 336, t. 51. A. ele<juns, Willd. 

 Spec. iii. 2042 (ex. char, and mainly herb.); Wenderoth in Act. Soc. Nat. Marb. ii. 17. A. 

 speriosns, Hornem. Hort. Hafn. ii. 816, fide DC. — Sandy soil, ^lassachusetts to Delaware, 

 near the coast, and perhaps farther southward, where it is replaced by the next. 



A. surculosus, Mkhx. A foot or less high from long filiform rootstocks, bearing solitary 

 or few pedunculate heads, Avhich are generally smaller than those of A. spectabilis, but not 

 dissimilar : leaves entire or nearly so, rigid, lanceolate or the upper linear and the radical 

 oblong-lanceolate : involucre sometimes puberuleut, liut hardly glandular. — Fl. i. 112; Nutt. 

 Gen. ii 157 ; Ell. Sk. ii. 354, ex char ; Kees, Ast. 40; Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 109. —Moist 

 rocky and gravelly ground, or sometimes iu sand, coast of New Jersey to Georgia, and on 

 the Blue Ridge iu North and South Carolina, wliere it was first collected by Michaux, and 

 where it abounds. 



A. gracilis, Nutt. About a foot high, slender, from slender and occasionally tuberous- 

 thickened rootstocks, smoothish, not glandular nor viscid, hearing few or several cymosely 

 disjtosed small heads: leaves oblong-lanceolate, entire or nearly so, small (au inch or two 

 long, 2 to 6 lines wide) : involucre turbinate, a quarter or third of an inch long, glabrous, 

 coriaceous and whitish, with very short deltoid or ovate green tips, only about 30-flowered : 

 ravs y to 12, a quarter to half au inch long: akeues rather short. — Gen. ii. 158; Torr. & 

 Grav, I.e. — Pine barrens, New Jersey to N. Carolina, also E. Kentucky and Tennessee, 

 according to Nuttall. The larger forms closely related to ^1. spectabilis, with which it is asso- 

 ciated , the more slender ones nearly approach Sericocarpiis. 



++ ++ Involucre hardly if at all squarrose; the tips of the bracts less definite and less spreading: 

 stems verv leafv: leaves pinnately veiny and reticulated, acutely serrate, more or less scabrous : 

 heads middle-sized, corymbosely cymose or rarely solitary : style-appendages rather short and 

 thick : Northern and Western species. 



A. radula Ait. Nearly glabrous or with some scattered hairs: stem slender and strict, a 

 foot or two high, bearing few or solitary mostly slender-pedunculate heads : leaves veiny, 

 oblong-lanceolate or narrower, acuminate, somewhat hispidulous-scal irons, thinnish (inclined 

 to he rugulose in drying, about 2 inches long, 3 to 9 lines wide), each margin with 3 to 7 

 serratures toward the middle ; upper cauliue sometimes oblong-ovate with subcordate sessile 

 base involucre nearly hemispherical, 3 or 4 lines high ; its bracts in few series, obtuse, 

 eiliolate ; the outermost oblong, inner narrower, shorter than the disk : rays half-inch long, 

 pale violet akeues glabrous, striate-nerved. ^- Kew. iii. 210; DC. Prodr. 1. c. 2.30; Torr. & 

 Gray Fl. ii. 106; Torr. Fl. N. Y. i. t. 50. A. nudijjnnis, Nutt. Gen. ii. 157, a broader- 

 leaved and most luxuriant southern form Was cultivated in 1839 in the Berlin Garden 

 as Biotia comimxtn, var. striata. — Swamps, Delaware to E. Massachusetts, Avest to the 

 mountains of Pennsylvania (Pocono), thence north to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. 

 Passes into 



Var. strictus. Reduced boreal form, a span to a foot high, with either oblong or 

 narrowly lanceolate barely serrulate leaves, and solitary or rarely 2 or 3 heads. — ^1. biflnrtis, 

 Miciix. Fl. ii. Ill ; Torr. & Gray, 1. c. A. strictus, Pursh, Fl. ii. 556. — Higher mountains 

 of New England to Labrador. 



A. Sibiricus, L A span to a foot high, often fastigiately branched from the base, some- 

 what cinereous-imbescent or puberuleut, or the foliage scabrous : heads solitary, terminating 

 the stem or corymbiform liranches: leaves oblong-spatulate to broadly lanceolate, .acutely 

 more or le.ss serrate (au itich or more, or in largest form even 3 inches long) : involucre 

 broaiUy campanulate, 3 lines high, shorter than the disk ; its bracts narrowly lanceolate, with 

 mostly acute and loose herbaceous tij)S . rays 3 or 4 lines long, violet : akenes pilose-pubes- 

 cent. — Spec ii. 872 (Gmel. Fl Sibir. ii. t. 80, f. 2), larger than American form ; Herder iu 

 Radde, Reis. iii 11. A. montanus. Richards. App Frankl. Jour. 32; Torr. & Gray, Fl. 

 ii. 107. A. Richardsonh, Spreng Syst. iii. 528; Hook. Fl. ii. 7. A. Espenbcrr/cDsis, Nees, 

 Ast. 36. ^1 Prtsrotln. Lind! in DC Prodr. v. 231 — Arctic coast and Alaskan Islands to 

 Rocky ^lountaius in Wyoming and Montana. (N. E. Asia to Arctic Eu.) 



