78 PLANTS GROWING IN MUD. 



bank. The common New England aster is tall and stately ; 

 from four to eight feet high. It is heavily foliaged with clasp- 

 ing, lanceolate leaves and its flower-heads are arranged in large, 

 dense corymbs. The many rays are a beautiful violet purple, 

 or sometimes a soft magenta. 



A.punkeus is an accompanying flower of the swamps. It also 

 is tall, but cannot vie with the above, as its utmost height ap- 

 pears to be about seven feet. Its long, slender rays vary in 

 colour from pale lilac blue to dark purple. The leaves are 

 long with a projection like ears at the base. On the upper side 

 they are quite rough. 



Ddellingeria umbellctta is the white representative of the 

 swamps, and grows quite as tall as, if not taller than, the purple 

 varieties. Its flower-heads are clustered rather flatly in com- 

 pound corymbs : a mark by which it may be identified. The 

 lower leaves are very long and the stem leafy to the top. 



A. nemoralis^ or bog aster, grow's from one to two feet tall 

 and has pretty lilac-rayed flowers. The leaves are sessile, long, 

 rigid and distinctly marked by their margins that roll back- 

 wards. The plant is quite rough. 



Sandy and dry-soil asters, Plate CXXXIII. 



