256 COMPOSITE, (composite family.) 



ovate or ovate-lanceolate, all but the uppermost lieart-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 thinner leaves 

 than the next ; not rough, but sometimes pubescent. 



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

 tJiickish, 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; rai/s 10-15 (white or bluish). 

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

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

 long, the innermo.st much larger and tliinner. 



§ 3. ASTER pro])er. Scales imbricated in various degrees, with herbaceous or 

 leaf-like summits, or the outer entirely foliaceous ; rays numerous; pappus 

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

 (ichenes flattened. (All flowering late in summer or in autumn.) 



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

 ing tips; pappus of rigid bristles; stem-leaves all sessile, none heart-shaped 

 or clasping ; heads feiv, or ichen several corymbose, large and showy. 

 -I- Lowest leaves ovate or ovatc-oblong, some rounded or subcordate at base. 



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

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

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

 Y high; involucre nearly hemispherical, the scales obscurely glandular, all 

 erect, with Aery short or indistinct green tips; rays violet, Y 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); root stocks slender. 



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

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

 obscurely serrate or the upper entire ; heads few, hemisplierical, ^' 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 \q^&, from long filiform 

 rootstocks ; leaves entire or nearly so, r/<//c?, lanceolate or the upper linear; 

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

 glandular. — INIoist 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, glabrou.s, not 

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

 tips ; rays 9-12,3-6" long. — Pine barrens, N. J. to N. C, E. Ky. and Tenn. 



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

 or sparsely hairy, many -leaved (1-3° high); (eaves oblong-lanceolate, pomted, 



