308 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



rough below and more or less glandular above, i to 2 feet high. Leaves 

 thickish, firm, the basal and lower ones oval, pointed, 3 to 5 inches long, 

 I to 1 5 inches wide, sparingly toothed with low teeth, narrowed at the base 

 into slender petioles; upper leaves entire or nearly so, sessile, pointed, 

 linear-oblong; heads several or numerous, about ih inches broad, corymbose, 

 very showy; bracts of the hemispheric involucre linear-oblong or slightly 

 spatulate, glandular viscid, overlapping in about five series, their green, 

 bluntish tips spreading. Ray flowers fifteen to thirty in number, bright 

 violet or violet-blue, one-half to seven-eighths of an inch long; pappus 

 whitish. 



In dry, sandy soil, chiefly near the coast, Massachusetts to Delaware. 

 Flowering from August to October. 



New England Aster 



Aster iwvac-angUae Linnaeus 



Plate 245 



Stems stout, very leafy and hairy, corymbosely branched above, 2 

 to 8 feet high, from a stout, perennial root. Leaves lanceolate, entire, 

 rather thin, pointed at the apex, hairy, 2 to 6 inches long, one-half 

 to I inch wide, clasping the stem by a broad, heart-shaped base. Heads 

 of flowers numerous, each head i to 2 inches broad, clustered at the ends 

 of the branches. Involucres hemispheric, their bracts linear-subulate, 

 somewhat unequal, spreading, green and hairy and visually glandular. 

 Ray flowers numerous, forty to fifty in each head, linear, one-half to two- 

 thirds of an inch long, violet-purple, rarely pink or reddish; achenes 

 ]3ubescent; pappus reddish white. 



In moist fields, swamps and wet thickets, often along streams or near 

 water, Quebec to Saskatchewan, south to Alabama, Kansas and Colorado. 

 Usually regarded as the most beautiful of the wild asters. Flowering from 

 August to October. 



