164 DESCRIPTION OF ASTER; DIVARICATI 
Occasional strong plants grow erect. Few leaves have any 
sinus. The leaf-form is best seen in the upper caulines, which are 
hardly to be duplicated among related species ; these and the lower 
leaves are often deflexed in case of bankside plants. Veins often 
very strong, depressed above, projecting beneath. Rays often 
Asten stilettiformis 
F16. 20. 
become acuminate by conduplication. Disks become brownish- 
red or crimson, sometimes Venetian-red, or wine-color. 
— Perhaps a recent derivative from A. persaliens, as suggested 
by its lowest cauline leaves. Resembles A. persaliens in general 
appearance; differs from it in having very much narrower upper 
leaves, with straighter sides ; in its truncate-based long sharp sessile 
axiles ; in its slit-toothed margins, the teeth chiefly with straight 
backs and rarely couchant ; in its round-tipped green bracts with 
but few of the inner ones narrowed. It tends also to the develop- 
ment of a weaker stem and broader more diffuse inflorescence. 
