ADDISONIA 51 
(Plate 66) 
ASTER TATARICUS 
Tatarian Aster 
Native of Siberia, Japan, and China 
Family CARDUACEAR THISTLE Family 
Aster tataricus L. f. Suppl. 373, 1781. 
A perennial herb, up to seven feet high, with robust, leafy stems 
bearing corymbiform panicles of flowers. The roots are long and 
fibrous. The stems are erect, strongly sgn and hispid, becoming 
very rough in the inflorescence with spine-like hairs. 
leaves are nearly two feet long and ae “nities wide, with margins 
of broad, somewhat mucronate teeth. They are Snseptage and 
narrowed at the base into slender petioles. The stem-leaves are 
sessile, tending to be decurrent, with a margin of sharp teeth. They 
are lanceolate, acuminate, about six inches long and one inch wide. 
Those on the branches of the inflorescence are still smaller, and 
very rough. ‘The flower-heads are one inch or more across, sur- 
rounded by a campanulate involucre of herbaceous bracts, which 
are purplish at the tip and on the edges. The yellow disk is made 
up of perfect, tubular flowers, and is surrounded by fifteen to 
twenty Sistitidte ray-flowers, light-blue or purple in color, and 
three fourths of an inch long. e flattened achenes bear many 
simple bristles, and are borne upon a convex, pitted receptacle. 
The Tatarian aster was first found in Siberia, and later in Japan 
and China. It grows in its native home on wooded hillsides, In 
the herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden are specimens 
collected in Japan by Maximowicz, and on Saghalien Island. 
Our illustration was made from a plant growing in the flower 
beds near Conservatory Range No. 1, since 1911. This aster 
develops its strong stems during the summer, and flowers from late 
September, through October, until the hard frosts set in, Blooming 
as late as it does, it adds greatly to the beauty of the perennial 
border at a time when most of the flowers are gone. It has a 
tendency to spread by suckers, and is readily propagated by 
division. Its lasting flowers and long stems make it valuable for 
cutting. 
KENNETH R. BOYNTON. 
EXPLANATION OF PLATE. Fig. 1.—Flowering stem. Fig. 2.—Leaf. Fig. 3. 
—Involucre, x 2. 
