COMPOSITE FAMILY COMPOSITAE 
SMOOTH ASTER 
Aster laevis L. 
This very ornamental blue Aster is often cultivated in gardens. 
It is common in dry open places from Maine to Saskatchewan 
and south to Alabama, Louisiana and Colorado. 
The stem is usually stout, 
\ smooth, more or less branched and 
: Ue 2-4 feet high. The leaves are thick 
DASE 
re and either entire or toothed. The 
'( upper ones are sessile and usually 
clasp the stem, and the lower are 
gradually narrowed into winged 
petioles. Those of the branches are 
often small and bractlike. 
The heads, blooming in Septem- 
ber and October, are usually numer- 
<= SLY ous and about 1 inch broad. The 
rigid, acute bracts of the bell- 
shaped involucre are green tipped 
\ and overlap in several series but are 
not spreading. There are 15-30 blue 
or violet rays. The pappus is 
yellowish and the akenes are 
smooth or nearly so. 
Short’s Aster, Aster Shortii Lindl., 
is a late-blooming blue species usually 
found on wooded banks or along edges 
of woods. The stem is rather slender 
and spreading, nearly smooth and © 
2-4 feet high. The leaves are thick, — 
smooth above but minutely hairy 
beneath, ovate or lanceolate and 
tapering to a sharp point. They are 
entire or only slightly toothed and all but the uppermost have slender 
naked petioles. None of them are clasping but those of the branches 
may be small and bractlike. The others are 2-6 inches long and 1-2 © 
inches wide. The bracts of the involucre have green tips and are © 
not spreading. There are 10-15 narrow violet-blue ray flowers. 
The purple asters bloom in crowds 
in every shady nook, 
And ladies’ eardrops deck the banks 
of many a babbling brook. 
Autumn—E. G. EasTMAN 
352 
