ASTER CHINENSIS-CHINA ASTER. 



CLASS, SYNGENESIA ; ORDER, POLYGAMIA SUPERFLUA. 

 NATURAL ORDER, COMPOSITE. 



GEN. CHAR. Calyx, imbricate, inferior, scales spreading. Egret, 

 simple, pilose. Receptacle, mostly deep pitted. SPEC. CHAR. 

 Leaves ovate, coarsely toothed, stalked. Cauline leaves, sessile, 

 wedge-formed at base ; floral leaves, spear-shaped entire. Stem, 

 hispid ; branches, with single heads. 



The numerous family of radiated flowers were named Aster, from 

 the Greek, signifying Star. The French, says Phillips, call this 

 autumnal flower REINE MARGUERITE, Queen Daisy. The Chinese 

 generic term for this flower is KEANG NAM FA. The European 

 parterres, and in turn our own, are indebted to the missionary, 

 Father D'Incarville, for the gay robe which this various colored 

 flower throws over them during the latter months of Flora's reign ; 

 he having sent the seeds from China to the Royal Garden of Paris, 

 about the year 1730, where the plants produced only simple flowers 

 of one uniform color, but which, through cultivation and change of 

 soil, soon became so doubled in petals and so various in colors as 

 to form one of the principal ornaments of the flower-garden, from 

 July to November. The Chinese display a taste in their arrange- 

 ment of these star-formed flowers, that leaves our florists far in the 

 back-ground. Let imagination, says Phillips, picture a bank 

 sloping to a piece of water, covered with these gay flowers, so dis- 



