Wild Flowers East of the Rockies 355 



HEATH ASTER (Aster ericoides) is also a com- 

 mon white aster from Me. to Minn, and southwards. 

 Its many flowers are but a little larger than those of 

 the last. The plant grows 1 to 3 feet tall and has 

 many branches, each having simple, many-flowered 

 stems racemed along their outer ends. All the stems, 

 even the flower peduncles, are set with tiny, health- 

 like, linear leaves. In our illustration, the apparently 

 different size between the flowers of this and the last 

 species is because the scale is different; the present 

 one represents a single flowering stem, correspond- 

 ing to one of the several shown in the other figure. 

 All the asters are frequented by bees, this species is 

 a special favorite with the honey bee and furnishes 

 him with a large percentage of the nectar he secures 

 during the waning days of his active year. 



MANY-FLOWERED ASTER (Aster multiflorus) 

 has, as its name would lead one to think, very many 

 flowers, but they are small, averaging less than % 

 inch across. In fact most of the white-flowered spe- 

 cies do have smaller flowers than the blue ones, but 

 what they lack in size they more than make up in 

 numbers. The stem is slender but very branching, 

 making a bush-like plant. Each branch is terminated 

 by short, many-flowered racemes. Our illustration 

 shows but a tip of one of the very numerous branches. 

 The leaves are tiny, light green and linear, smooth- 

 edged but rough to the touch, crowded along the 

 branches to their tips. This is a common species 

 from Mass, to Minn, and southwards, growing in dry 

 places everywhere and blooming from Sept. to Nov. 



