Aster. COMPOSITE. 181 



* 7. Heads small, or in one species middle-sized, paniculate: lower caiiline and radical leaves cor- 

 date and petiuled: no glandular or viscid pubescence: akenes compressed, short, 3-5-nerved: 

 rays violet, purplish, or sometimes almost white: bracts of tlie involucre with short and ap- 

 pressed green tips, except in the first. — Heterophylli. 

 ■\r- Anomalous species, with middle-sized heads, many rays, and squarrose foliaceous involucre! 

 A. anomalus, Engelm. Pubescent and somewhat scabrous, a foot to a yard high, 

 paniculately or virgately branched above, bearing numerous loosely disposed heads : leaves 

 . veiny, thinnish, entire, mostly oblong- to lanceolate-ovate with narrow and often deep cor- 

 date base, those of brauchlets reduced and lanceolate to subulate : heads half-inch high : 

 involucre pluriserially imbricated, hirsutulous-pubescent, of attenuate-linear bracts; their 

 foliaceous upper haK recurved or widely spreading : rays brigjit violet, about 40, quarter to 

 half an iuch long: akenes glabrous. — Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 503. — Limestone cliffs, Illinois, 

 Missouri, and Arkansas; first coll. by Engclmann. 



-f— -(— True Heterophylli, with smaller heads, 10 to 20 rays, and a close involucre of appressed or 

 erect bracts. Occasional specimens witii only the radical leaves cordate. 



++ Leaves all entire or nearly so (lower sometimes with a few teeth), of rather firm texture, all 

 much longer than wide, none clasping: heads showy: rays violet, 5 or even 6 lines long, 15 (o 

 20 in number: involucre 3 or 4 lines high ; its bracts all appressed and with mostly definite 

 short green tips, outer successively shorter. 



A. Shortii, Hook. Stem 2 to 4 feet high, rather slender, leafy to the summit, bearing 

 racemose-paniculate heads : leaves minutely soft-pubescent, mostly glabrate and smooth 

 above, thiu-veiny, nearly all petioled; radical and principal cauline ovate-lanceolate with 

 distinctly cordate base and on sleuder naked petioles, tapering-acute (3 to 5 inches long), 

 only on ultimate short brauchlets or peduucles reduced to ininute subulate bracts : involucre 

 sometimes puberulent ; its bracts narrow, less rigid and less definitely green-tipped than in 

 the next: rays light violet. —Fl. ii. 9 ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 118. — Border of thickets and 

 shaded banks, Ohio to Georgia in the upper country, west to Kentucky and Illinois ; first 

 coll. by Short. 



A. azureuSj Lindl. Stem 2 to 4 feet high, paniculately or racemosely compound at 

 summit : branches slender and rigid : leaves hirtello-scabrous both sides ; radical and lowest 

 cauline ovate-lanceolate with subcordate base, on sleuder petioles (3 to 6 inches long) ; cauline 

 oblong or lanceolate with winged petiole or attenuate base, verging to linear, and on the 

 branciilets reduced to numerous small and slender-subulate rigid bracts : involucre glabrous 

 and smooth ; green tips of the bracts ovate or deltoid : rays deep violet-blue. — Hook. Comp. 

 Bot. Mag. i. 98, & DC. Prodr. v. 244 (incompletely described for want of lower leaves);' 

 Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 118. A. Oolentanijleusis, Riddell, Synops. 55. — Prairies and border of 

 woods, W. New York and Ohio to Minnesota, and southwest to Arkansas and Texas, where 

 there are forms with hardly a cordate leaf ! 



++ -H- Leaves some entire, but lower almost alwavs somewhat serrate, rather firm in texture, 

 longer than broad ; the base, or that of wing-margined petiole of lower cauline, cordate-daspiny : 

 greenish tips of the less rigid invohicral bracts short and rather obtuse. 



A. undulatus, L. Pale or dull with a minute somewhat cinereous and sometimes scabrous 

 pubesueuce : branches rather rigid, racemosely or paniculately bearing several or rather 

 numerous racemosely disposed heads : leaves at most inconspicuously or obtusely serrate ; 

 upper mainly entire, lanceolate or oblong with partly clasping base, altove diminished to 

 subulate bracts ; middle ones ovate or ovate-lanceolate, abruptly contracted below and with 

 dilated cordate-clasping base, sometimes panduriform, below subcordate on margined petioles ; 

 lowest cauline and radical cordate on slender naked petioles : heads 4 lines high : rays bright 

 violet or sometimes paler. — Spec. ii. 875 ( Hort. Cliff. & Herm. Parad. t. 96, whence the name, 

 & Moris. Hist. 120) ; Ait. Kew. iii. 206 ; Hoffm. Phyt. Blatt. 77, t. C, f. 1 ; Torr. & Gray, 1. c. ; 

 Sprague, Wild Flowers, t. 4. A. divers if alius, DC. Prodr. v. 234. A. paniculatus, Nutt. 

 Gen. ii. 56, not Ait., nor Lam. A. sacjittifolius. Ell. Sk. ii. 262, not Willd. — Dry ground, 

 margin of woods, &c., Canada to Florida, Kentucky, and Arkansas. Southward iu tlie low 

 and middle country the common form is 



Var. diversifolius. I\I':>re rigid, scabrous or scabro-puberulent, and with longer 

 virgate flowering branches, which are beset with minute subulate or lanceolate (or below 

 oblong) leaves, only the lower cauline having a narrowed base or winged petiole. — A. diver- 

 sifolius, Michx. Fl. ii. 113 A. scaber. Ell. Sk. ii. 262. A. asperulus, Torr. & Gray, Fl. 



