ADDISONIA 39 
(Plate 60) 
ASTER AMETHYSTINUS 
Amethyst Aster 
Native of the northeastern United States 
Family CARDUACEAE THISTLE Family 
Aster amethystinus Nutt. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. II. 7: 294. 1840. 
A perennial herb, three to six feet high, with long, spreading 
branches. The stems are rough-hispid, bearing numerous slightly 
clasping leaves which are hispid on both surfaces, entire, linear- 
lanceolate and acute at the tip. They are one or two inches long 
and from one eighth to one fourth of an inch wide. ‘The numerous 
flower-heads, less than an inch in diameter, are in large clusters. 
Each head is surrounded by a top-shaped involucre of man 
yellow disk, are twenty to thirty in number, and from one fourth 
to one half an inch long. The achenes have a copious pappus of 
This aster is of local occurrence from Massachusetts to Iowa. 
It was probably first found, previous to 1840, in the neighborhood 
of Boston. According to Gray, it had been cultivated in England 
as A. bostoniensis, but in this country it has not been used as much 
as it should be. It has the habit of the well-known Aster Novae- 
Angliae, and is quite similar to A. oblongifolius, but its involucral 
bracts are hispid instead of glandular. 
Our illustration was taken from a plant in a border group near 
Conservatory Range 1, New York Botanical Garden, which makes 
a display of amethyst-blue when the plants bloom in September 
and October. They are hardy, easily grown, and can be propagated 
by division. 
KENNETH R. BOYNTON, 
