62 



THE ASTERS. 



The mythical origin of the Asters is 

 set forth in an old Greek story, which 

 states that after the gods had abandoned 

 the earth, because of the crimes and dis- 

 sensions that cam-e with the Brazen Age, 

 Astraea, the goddess of innocence and 

 purity, alone remained, endeavoring to 

 redeem the degenerate race of mortals. 

 She, too, finally left, and became known 

 among the stars as the constellation 

 Virgo, or the Virgin. After the wrath of 

 Jupiter had been appeased by the de- 

 struction of the earth by water, Virgo, 

 noticing that the summit of Mount Par- 

 nassus had alone escaped the flood, 

 planted there a seed, whose fiowers should 

 reflect the azure hue of her new home and 

 whose heart should typify the Golden 

 Age that some day will come again to 

 mankind. This plant, Virgo destined as 

 a symbol of her mission of purity and so 

 she gave it her early name, Astraea or 

 Aster. That the plants might bloom 

 for all races of men, Zephyrus, the lover 

 of Flora, queen of the flowers, took the 

 seeds and distributed them throughout 

 the earth from polar snows to the sun- 

 kissed lands of the equator. Hence it 

 is that the Aster, in some of its varied 

 forms, is found in all countries, over two 

 hundred and fifty species being known 

 to botanists. Although the plant is cos- 

 mopolitan, it is essentially an American 

 form, one hundred and fifty of the total 

 known species belonging to North Amer- 

 ica. Of the balance, Russia claims 

 twenty, Europe ten and Canada sixty or 

 seventy. 



It seems as though Nature, after the 

 first blush of spring, relaxed her efforts 

 for a supreme endeavor towards the close 

 of the floral season. Then she assumes 

 her festal robes and the woodlands and 

 fields become gorgeous with the purple of 

 the Asters, the gold of the sunflowers 

 and goldenrod, with here and there the 

 cardinal and blue of the lobelias. 



Among all this symphony of color, no 

 plant is more lavish of its charms than 

 the New England Aster (Aster Novae 

 Anglae). Botanically considered, the 



Asters belong to the Compositae, a family 

 of plants including from ten to twelve 

 thousand species and characterized by 

 large numbers of flowers, crowded to- 

 gether into single heads, each of which 

 gives the impression of a single flower. 

 What appear to be petals, are known as 

 ray flowers and give the characteristic 

 color, as the purple, blue or white of the 

 Aster or the yellow of the Sunflower. 

 These rays consist of flowers, whose pet- 

 als have been joined together and spread 

 out flat, the points of the petals usually 

 appearing on the end of the ray. In the 

 case of the Asters, the ray flowers, which 

 occur in a single row, are pistillate or have 

 a pistil and no stamens and hence are 

 capable of producing seeds. The center 

 or disk flowers are tubular, yellow in 

 color and perfect, • containing both sta- 

 mens and pistils. The heads are sur- 

 rounded by an involucre, having leaf- 

 like tips and are variously massed or 

 branched along the stems of the plant. 



With few exceptions, the Asters are 

 perennial, coming up each year from the 

 old underground portions and flowering 

 in autumn. They vary in height from a 

 few inches to eight feet or more, but in 

 the case of the New England Aster, the 

 completed growth is generally from two 

 to seven or eight feet. This species has 

 a stout and somewhat hairy stem clothed 

 with many leaves which are pointed, have 

 entire edges and a clasping base. The 

 ray flowers in the common form are pur- 

 ple, but in the two varieties of the species, 

 they are rose-purple or white. 



The plant derives its name from the 

 fact that its general distribution in the 

 Eastern States together with the beauty 

 of its flowers gained it an early recog- 

 nition among the pioneers of New Eng- 

 land, where it soon became a favorite. 

 The statement is made that it was the 

 chosen flower of John Alden and Priscilla 

 and, on many occasions, old books, 

 handed down from revolutionary days, 

 have been found to contain dried speci- 

 mens of the flowers. 



The Late Purple Aster (Aster patens) 



