BLUE AND PURPLE GROUP 



slightly hairy. Bracts, bell-shape, fringed at the tips. July to 

 September. 



Swamps, bogs, and low, moist woods. Now England to 



Delaware and Pennsylvania. 



New England Aster 



A. novae -angltae. — Color, violet purple, often pale. Lea: i 

 to 5 inches long, thin, entire, clasping the stem with heart- 

 shaped bases. Stem, hairy, stout, much branched above, thickly 

 leaved, 2 to 8 feet high, with large heads of showy flowers clus- 

 tered at the ends of stem and branches. Rays, long, narrow. 

 numerous, often drooping. 



Moist ground, in fields and bordering swamps, from Maine 

 to Quebec, southward to South Carolina, Missouri, and Kan- 

 sas. One of the finest of our asters, cultivated in many 

 gardens for the beauty of its brightly colored flowers. 



A. concolor. — Showy, dark violet rays in heads which make a 

 simple or compound, straight, narrow raceme. Leaves, soft and 

 silky, grayish on both sides, oblong, 1 inch long, crowded and 

 pressed close against the stem, the upper ones small bracts. Stem, 

 2 or 3 feet high, wanddike, unbranched below the Mowers. 



Sandy soil, Massachusetts southward, near the coast. 



Late Purple Aster 



A* patens* — Color, deep blue purple. Leaves, rough - hairy, 

 oblongdanceolate or ovate, with deeply heart -shape- 1 bases, clasp- 

 ing and almost surrounding the stem, pointed, entire, small, the 

 longest 1 to 3 inches; leaves on the branchlets reduced to scales. 

 Flowers, single, terminating upper branches. Dish, small, yellow- 

 ish green. Rays, long, wit 

 high. August to October. 



One of our prettiest blue asters, growing in dry ground, 

 along roadsides and in open places. Massachusetts to Flor- 

 ida and westward. 



Wavy-leaf Aster 



A. undulktus. — Color of the 8 to 1 5 rays surrounding each head 

 of flowers, a pale blue. Leaves, wavy, somewhat toothed, the 

 lowest 2 to 5 inches long, on margined petioles with heart-shaped 

 bases; those higher up, petioled, the petioles much swollen and 

 clasping the stem; the upper sessile, clasping; those on branches, 

 very small. Stem, stiff, stout, 1 to 3 feet high, branched near the 



359 



