346 COMPOSITE. Aster. 



*•»♦♦• Heads (middle-sized or large, showy) mostly corymbose or pamculaU : scales of the involucre eqnal or somewhat uneqiud, 

 mere or less imbricated, with loose or spreading herbaceous w foliaceous tips, the exterior frequently entirely herbaceous : 

 achcnia pubescent or smooth : rays usually large and numerous, blue or purple : cauline leaves sessile, the upper more 

 or less clasping. 



18. Aster laxus, Willd. Loosehj -branched Aster. 



Stem smooth or a little pubescent in lines, racemose-compound or decompound, the branches 

 loose and corymbose at the summit, the branchlets elongated ; leaves narrowly lanceolate, 

 acuminate, the margin (and often the upper surface) rough, the lower ones somewhat serrate ; 

 those of the branchlets linear, obliquely spreading ; scales of the involucre broadly linear, 

 loose, a little squarrose-spreading. — Willd. enum. 2. 'p. 886 ; Nees, Ast. p. 95; DC. prodr. 

 5. p. 240 ; Torr. S^ Gr. fi. N. Am. 2. p. 135. 



Stem apparently 3-4 feet high, with numerous rigid ascending branches, purplish. Radical 

 leaves not seen ; cauline ones 2-4 inches long and about half an inch broad ; those of the 

 branchlets much smaller, broad and a little clasping at the base. Heads loosely corymbose, 

 about as large as in A. puniceus. Scales of the involucre herbaceous, green, rather acute ; 

 the exterior ones (particularly in the terminal heads) at length squarrose. Rays very numerous 

 (40 - 50), narrow, purplish-blue. 



Island of Nevif-York, near the Deaf and Dumb Asylum {Mr. Brownne). 



19. Aster elodes, Torr. Sf Gr. Blue S^nooth Marsh Aster. 



Very smooth ; stems simple or somewhat branched, flexuous, slender, loosely somewhat 

 paniculate at the summit ; leaves varying from lanceolate to linear, somewhat coriaceous, 

 narrowed at each end, nearly entire or sparingly appresscd-serrulate, shining, the upper ones 

 somewhat clasping by a narrow base ; scales of the hemispherical involucre spatulate-linear, 

 acute, mucronulate, with recurved-spreading herbaceous tips ; achenia smooth. — Torr. <^ 

 Gr. fl. N. Am. 2. p. 136. A. elodes, Nutt. gen. 2. p. 155, not of Ait- 

 Stem 1-24 feet high, often simple, with a few flowers in a loose paniculate raceme at 

 the summit ; at other limes somewhat compoundly branched above, with the flowers more 

 numerous ; and more rarely (especially in the narrowest-leaved forms) fastigiately branched. 

 Leaves 2-6 inches long, varying from little more than a line to 6 or 8 lines in breadth, the 

 largest ones usually occurring on the specimens with simple stems, often tapering below, and 

 then suddenly dilated a little at the base ; those of the flowering branches usually 1-2 inches 

 long and few in number, but in the much branched forms often very small and rather nu- 

 merous. Heads large and showy, sometimes only very few or almost solitary, and seldom 

 numerous, solitary on the rather short branchlets. Involucre more than half an inch in dia- 

 meter. Scales ciliate on the margin, the inner ones usually more or less tinged with purple. 

 Rays 25 - 30, large, deep blue or violet. Disk-flowers yellow, sometimes turning purplish. 

 Deep swamps. Long Island. August - October. A very handsome species, common in 

 the sandy swamps of New- Jersey, but riot found hitherto in the State of New- York, except 

 on Long Island. It is, perhaps, too near A. longifolius, Lam. 



