HARPER'S GUIDE TO WILD FLOWERS 



Silver-rod 



Solidkgo bicolor. — Family, Composite. Color, cream white. 

 This is the only white golden-rod, although a variety of Virgaurea 

 is found near the White Mountains with rays so pale as to be 

 almost white. The bicolor is usually taken for an aster. The 

 flowers grow in clusters, making short or, at times, rather long 

 interrupted racemes upon the wand-like, softly hairy stems. 

 Leaves, oblong, pointed at both ends, the lower ones with short 

 petioles, the upper sessile, serrate. August to October. 



In dry soil along paths and roadsides through open woods 

 in the Eastern States. (See illustration, p. 133.) 



Aster 



The asters — distinguished, often handsome, members of 

 the Composite Family — seldom bloom before August. They 

 are essentially a fall flower, mingling their bright purple or 

 blue or white rays tastefully with the golden-rods and sun- 

 flowers. They grow with us everywhere, and being, with 

 few exceptions, perennials, reappear year after year in their 

 own chosen haunts. The disks are yellow, sometimes turn- 

 ing to brown or purple. Asters grow upon the stems and 

 branches variously, sometimes in close bunches, or in 

 corymbs or loose panicles. Many species are subject to 

 great variations, and they run into one another. They vary 

 in size from small buttons to a silver half-dollar. The name 

 means a star. 



Aster macrophyllus Family, Composite. Color, white, or 



sometimes with a bluish tinge. There are many white asters, 

 and some of those of a blue or purple color vary to white. By 

 attention to stem, leaves, and locality, most of them can be 

 classified. This species has a stout stem, 2 or 3 feet high. Leaves, 

 rough, serrate, the lower with long petioles, heart-shaped, very 

 long and broad. Upper sessile or with short petioles. Heads 

 of flowers in large, firm corymbs. 



Open woods and thickets. 



White Heath Aster 



A. ericoides bears tiny white flowers, becoming pinkish, with 

 fine, almost hair-like rays, and yellow, compact disks. It might 

 be a small daisy. Leaves, small, narrow, the lower broader and 

 somewhat toothed. Stems, slender and wiry, from 1 to 3 feet 



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