THE THISTLH FAMILY. 5,1 



Aster Ciirtisii. 



TIME OF BLOOM 



Floiver-heads : axillary, or growing in broad, loose corymbs and cnr- ' f 



both ray and disk flowers, enclosed in an involucre of green, linear an<. 

 bracts. Rays: almost linear, violet-blue, entire. Disk-Jhriocrs : pak- ' 

 numerous. Leaves: alternate ; lanceolate ; the lower ones tapering at the base into 

 margined petioles; the upper ones and those of the inflorescence, sessile, serrate- 

 bright green. Stem : two to three feet high ; simple ; erect ; leafy ; deep pur* 

 pie, or brownish ; smooth. 



It is not strange that the people of the mountainous districts call the 

 asters, " frost-flowers," for when, with golden-rods, their white and purple 

 flowers strew the floor of these sombre heights it is time indeed to prepare 

 for the winter. Hardly then are moments taken to praise their beauty. 

 Through the dry, open woods of the mountainous district of North Carolina 

 and Tennessee — apparently the plant's range— Aster Curtisii is found, one of 

 the most dainty and artistically coloured of all the genus. When its di.sk-tlow- 

 ers are young, they are light yellow or nearly white. Only as they grow old 

 do they turn to magenta. Early in the season, sometimes, when the .Sabbalias 

 are blooming, there may also be found close and rather curious-looking 

 heads of small, ovate and pointed leaves. These are the proliferous flowers 

 of Aster Curtisii, or rather those leaves which have not been transformed 

 into flowers. 



From the summit of Mt. Mitchell a bouquet of such ones was brcnr^b.t 

 to me combined with Sabbatia angularis. The effect was charming. 



In the high mountains of western North Carolina our attention was fre- 

 quently directed by the natives to what they termed the " evergreen aster." 

 in the beauty of which they seemed to feel some just pride. The plant 

 was, however, lonactis linariifolia, — stiff, or savory-leaved aster, and it is 

 quite true that nearly throughout the winter its leaves are persistent. 



Aster grandijlorus, large-flowered aster, the great showy one of the 

 south, thrives well from Florida to Virginia especially in the Piedmont region. 

 Its stem is divaricately branched, and the flower-heads terminal at the ends 

 of the sprays. Often they measure as much as two inches across. The ray- 

 flowers, of deep violet, are most numerous. Linear, or linear lanceolate, 

 are the stiff and entire hispid leaves and quite without any imh. li cf silvery 

 sheen. 



A. Elliott ii^ which grows through the swamps from Flon.i.i i.. North 

 Carolina, is another remarkably beautiful species, its ray-flowers being pale 

 pinkish purple, long and slender; the rather small, loose bracts of the Ih-II- 

 shaped involucre being nearly equal in si/e, ilu-ir tips slightly spreading. 



