Minnesota Plant Life. 



407 



Boneset or thoroughwort. 

 Brown. 



After Britton and 



arrangement of the heads in compound flower-clusters and by 



the texture and shape of the leaves. Daisies and oxeye daisies, 



asters and Boltonias are 



kindred to the golden- 

 rods. The asters, which 



bloom so abundantly 



in the autumn of the 



year, may be known by 



their generally purple 



or whitish ray-flowers, 



their pappus, consist- 

 ing of a single series of 



hair-like bristles, and 



their disk flowers of a 



red, purplish or brown- 

 ish color. Some asters 



which live in the forest 



have very broad and 



heart-shaped leaves, 



while others, at home 



in the open, produce leaves that are slender or even awl-shaped. 



The flowers are ordinarily arranged in compound panicles 



or flat-topped clusters, very 

 numerous in some species, 

 n in others fewer. The one- 

 sided, racemed inflorescence 

 aggregates of the golden- 

 rods are found in a few^ spe- 

 cies. Asters arc to be dis- 

 tinguished from each other 

 by the same characters men- 

 tioned for the goldenrods. 



Fleabanes have commonly 

 very slender, thread-like ray 

 flowers, usually of a white 

 color, shading often into 

 violet or purple. The ever- 

 lastings, to which the com- 

 mon little Indian tobacco belongs, are for the most part woolly 

 plants with separated flowers. The staminate flowers are pro- 



202. Blazing-star. After 

 Brown. 



Britton and 



