ASTER SEXTILIS 163 
burg, Dawley woods, borders and roadsides, abundant, Au. 19, '96. Sheridan, 
Talcott woods, Au. 15, '96, Au. '97, '98, '99. 
11? Pigmy-head form. Peculiar little plants in close clumps 
with aspect of Acalypha, — partly due to dull gray-green coloring 
and partly to foliose growth in axils. Heads a dozen or less, 
close-crowded, about 8, in. high and but twice as broad. Stems 
chiefly green and 6 to 8 in. high. Leaves serrulate, oblong-ovate, 
strongly caudate, chiefly with abrupt truncate base; sometimes 
slightly cordated, or auriculate by extension of basal lobes at the 
outer angle; some upper leaves lanceolate; all caudate and 
slender-petioled. Disks soon brownish.— Very strange plants, 
perhaps owing some of their peculiarity to growth as choked 
seedlings. 
W. N. Y., Fredonia, Marsh's woods, Au. 20,96; edge of cave, Wintergreen 
Gulf, Au. 13, '97; west branch of Canadaway Cr., Au. 14, '97; Cascade Brook, Au. 
'97; Pt. Gratiot wood-edge, Au. ’97. 
SUBDIVISION B oF DivARICATE ASTERS. 
Stems weak or decumbent. — Sp. 12~16 
12. ASTER STILETTIFORMIS Burgess 
Much-branched plants with slender green or brownish-green 
often decumbent stems, long narrow linear-oblong leaves, straight- 
backed, sharp, close conspicuous teeth, lingual bracts, rather large 
flowers, and little development of sinus or petiole. 
Name from the straight-pointed upper leaves and axiles. 
Fic. 20, plant from Hunter, N. Y., Se. 7, '99, in hb. Bu 
Aster stilettiformis Burgess in Small’s S. E. Flora, 1211. 1903; with origi- 
nal description : 
“Stem greenish, slender, weak and often decumbent. Pre- 
dominant leaf-blades deep green, often roughened above, linear- 
oblong and long-acuminate, with subtruncate base and short 
petiole, and closely set with conspicuous sharp straight-backed 
teeth ; some lower leaves broader, ovate-acuminate with moderate 
sinus and with double-curved or couchant teeth; axile leaves 
divaricate, straight-tapered from a sessile truncate base, every- 
where closely slit-toothed, suggesting a barbed stiletto. Inflor- 
escence remotely diffused, but with short pedicels ; bracts lingual, 
nearly uniform, green or mostly so ; rays often 7, sometimes red- 
dening at the tips; disks turning brownish-red. Differs from 4. 
divaricatus L., especially in leaf-form, bracts and stem. — On 
shaded banks, Ms. to S. C. and Tenn. — Fall. Type, Hunter, 
N. Y, Bu, Se. 7, 'go, in hb. Bw." 
