WHITE 



forming their usual unattractive background. The plant is a 

 rank, ill-scented one, which was introduced into our country 

 from Asia. It was so associated with civilization as to be called 

 the " white man's plant " by the Indians. 



Its purple-flowered relative, D. Tatula, is an emigrant from 

 the tropics. This genus possesses narcotic-poisonous properties. 



WHITE ASTERS. 



[PI. XLII.-XLIIl 

 Aster. Composite Family. 



Flower-heads. Composed of white or sometimes purplish ray-flowers 

 with a centre of yellow disk-flowers. 



While we have far fewer species of white than of blue or 

 purple asters, some of these few are so abundant in individuals 

 as to hold their own fairly well against their bright-hued rivals. 



The smooth, slender, somewhat zigzag stem of the white 

 wood aster, A. corymbosus, is green or purple, with reddish 

 streaks. Its leaves are thin, the lower ones large, heart-shaped, 

 and somewhat coarsely toothed, the uppermost small, oval, and 

 tapering. The white flower-heads are borne in loose leafy clus- 

 ters. The plant is found blossoming during the month of August 

 in open woods and along the shaded roadsides. 



Bordering the dry fields at this same season and later, we 

 notice the spreading wand-like branches, thickly covered on their 

 upper sides with tiny flower-heads, as with snow-flakes, of the 

 white heath aster, A. ericoides. This plant is easily distinguished 

 by its small rigid linear leaves. The lower leaves, however, are 

 much larger and somewhat wedge-shaped. 



The pointed -leaved aster, A. acuminatus , is easily identified 

 by means of the oblong-pointed leaves, which are crowded so 

 close to the top of the stem as to give often the effect of being 

 whorled just below the white, or sometime purplish, flower-clus- 

 ters. This is peculiarly a wood-loving plant. 



A. umbellatus is the tall white aster of the swamps and moist 

 thickets. It sometimes reaches a height of seven feet, and can 



99 



