214 



BLUE TO PURPLE 



In August or September the mountain meadows and forests 

 teem with many of these flowers, for then 



" Everywhere the purple asters nod, 

 And bend, and wave, and Hit." 



They are the pretty heralds of Autumn, some of them tall, 

 handsome, and stately, like the Large Purple Aster ; some 

 quite small, some big and branching, and others again straight 

 and slender, but all tending to glorify the earth. The Aster 

 conspicuiis is the largest and handsomest of all its tribe, as 

 its name suggests. It is very branching and has large leaves 

 that are sharply toothed ; while the involucre, or green cup 

 which holds the flower, is curiously formed by several series 

 of tiny narrow-pointed bracts, which stand out horizontally and 

 give it a fringed appearance. The rays of this Aster are a 

 lovely bright purple, and the disk-flowers in the centre are 

 golden yellow. 



A. Fremonti^ or Fremont's Aster, is a very common species. 

 It also has purple rays, but rather brownish-yellow disk- 

 flowers. All the Asters consist of numerous, tiny, tubular 

 disk-flowers crowded together in a close cluster and sur- 

 rounded by the rays, or ray-flowers, which are strap-shaped, 

 the whole being held together in a green cup, or involucre, 

 of bracts. The leaves of Fremont's Aster are quite smooth 

 at the edges. 



The Asters are much-prized flowers, because they come to 

 U3 at a season when the whole world is walking in russet garb 

 along a penitential pathway that leads to winter's frosty 

 prison. Only the Golden-rods and Asters are left to linger 

 through the soft gray days of late autumn, and what could be 

 more beautiful than these blossoms of purple and gold, which, 

 where the sun strikes light with his ruddy lances, bejewel the 

 burnished lustre of bare branches and brown fallen leaves t 



A. foliacens, or Leafy-bracted Aster, is a stout-stemmed 

 erect species, with violet, purple, or white rays. It has many 



