256 COMPOSITE. (COMPOSITE FAMILY.) 



ovate or ovate-lanceolate, all but the uppermost heart-shaped at the base and 

 on slender naked petioles; rays 6-9. Woodlands ; Common ; especially 

 northward. July, Aug. Plant 1-2 high, with smaller heads, looser co- 

 rymbs, rounder and less rigid exterior involucral scales, and thiuner leaves 

 than the next ; not rough, but sometimes pubescent. 



3. A. macrophyllus, L. Stem stout and rigid (2-3 high); leaves 

 thickish, rough, closely serrate, abruptly pointed; the lower heart-shaped (4-10' 

 long, 3-6' wide), long-petioled ; the upper ovate or oblong, sessile or on mar- 

 gined petioles; heads in ample rigid corymbs; rays 10-15 (white or bluish). 

 Moist woods; common northward, and southward along the mountains. 

 Aug., Sept. Involucre ' broad ; the outer scales rigid, oblong or ovate-ob- 

 long, the innermost much larger and thinner. 



3. ASTER proper. Scales imbricated in various degrees, ivt'th herbaceous or 

 leaf-like summits, or the outer entirely folia ceons ; rai/s numerous; pappus 

 simple, soft and nearly uniform (coarser and more rigid in the first group); 

 a chenes flattened. (All flowering late in summer or in autumn.) 



* 1 . Scales well imbricated, coriaceous, with short herbaceous mostly obtuse spread- 

 ing tips; pappus of riyid bristles; stem-haves all sessile, none heart-shaped 

 or clasping ; heads few, or when several corymbose, large and showy. 



t Lowest leaves ovate or ovate-oblong, some rounded or sitbcordate at base. 



4. A. Herveyi, Gray. Slightly scabrous, 1-2 high, the summit and 

 peduncles glaudular-puberulent ; leaves roughish, obscurely serrate, the lower 

 ovate on nearly naked petioles, the upper lanceolate ; heads loosely corymbose, 

 J' high ; involucre nearly hemispherical, the scales obscurely glandular, all 

 erect, with very short or indistinct green tips; rays violet, \' long. Borders 

 of oak woods, in rather moist soil, E. Mass, and R. I. ; Mt. Desert. An 

 ambiguous species, approaching the last. 



H- -t- Radical leaves all tapering into margined petioles; involucres squarrose 

 (hardly so in n. 8) ; rootstocks slender. 



5. A. spectabilis, Ait. Stems 1-2 high, roughish and glandular- 

 puberuleut above ; leaves oblong-lanceolate, or the lower spatulate-oblong, 

 obscurely serrate or the upper entire ; heads few, hemispherical, ' high ; scales 

 glandular-puberulent and viscid ; mostly with the upper half herbaceous and 

 spreading ; rays about 20, bright violet, nearly 1' long. Sandy soil, Mass, to 

 Del., near the coast, and perhaps southward. Sept. -Nov. One of the hand- 

 somest species of the genus. 



6. A. surculosus, Michx. Stems 1 high or less, from long filiform 

 rootstocks; leaves entire or nearly so, rigid, lanceolate or the upper linear; 

 heads few or solitary, as in the last but generally smaller, the scales hardly 

 glandular. Moist ground, coast of N. J., and southward. 



7. A. gracilis, Nutt. Rootstocks occasionally tuberous-thickened ; stems 

 slender, 1 high; leaves oblong-lanceolate, entire or nearly so, small (1-2' 

 long) ; heads few or several ; involucre top-shaped, 3 - 4" long, glabrous, not 

 glandular nor viscid, the coriaceous whitish scales with very short deltoid or ovate 

 tips ; rays 9 - 1 2, 3 - 6" long. Pine barrens, N. J. to N. C., E. Ky. and Teiin. 



8. A. radula, Ait. Stem simple or corymbose at the summit, smooth 

 or sparsely hairy, many -leaved (1-3 high); leaves oblong-lanceolate, pointed, 



