ASTER ARCIFOLIUS 175 
or only 4 in., with 6 to 8 short broad rays which are often crim- 
son-tinged, sometimes quite deeply so. Disks becoming brownish, 
but usually previously crimson.  Pedicels 5 in. long or usually 
as long as the head, inflorescence small and often peduncular when 
growing in close communities, wide-spreading and forming a loose 
convex mass when growing in loose patches. 
Bracts chiefly lingual, obtusish or acutish, all much alike, but 
including some acute, obtuse, truncate, bevelled or rounded T 
The oblong type with lingual-acutish tip seems most common 
cluding a third or more of each head, the inner third being iet 
linear and tapering-obtuse. Green tips but moderately developed ; 
bracts otherwise mostly pale and thin-coriaceous, their central 
green line very slender.  Ciliation moderate, whitish, chiefly 
upward. 
Impoverished plants show 6 broad rays repeatedly, and nar- 
rower lance-triangular leaves; they resemble small plants of 4. 
divaricatus L. closely. Shaded plants show less crimson or none, 
and often develop quite conspicuous bracteals.  Better-nourished 
plants of the same cluster show broader looser branching, 8 rays 
repeatedly and in some heads 11, occasional Pe I in. broad, 
and sometimes a leaf 4 x 2 in. or even 7 x 234 
Habitat, grassy open levels, in rather moist a ; especially 
low grounds near brooks and swamps ; sometimes in slight shade ; 
L. Erie to the Taconics at 1,600 ft. 
Examples : 
Ms., Taconics, on Mt. l, Se. 8, 
N. y.y ee hen id e 16, "b. pt Indianfield, Se. 16,798; Se:on 
Falls, Se. Pegs Pu ers fragrant on pH: and while drying. 
"d ea s ; Undereliff Oc. 17, *98. 
2C aa KNER Brook at Hunter, Se. 8, '90, type ; P) in Anger 
Hollow, Colonel’s Chai ;: BE: 102 ^00; eg rock, Mossy Brook, Se. 6 b. 
Minnewas "ie Ne '99. c. rn Pe ck in hb. E: 
Nor deni Brace's tin Pd 15,'96; Hanover, Gardner's Brook, 
Au. I9, d dA 9, '96. 
— Aster pac resembles A. divaricatus deltoideus in its 
leaves; but its leaves are more acuminate, more finely serrate, the 
teeth more outflung, and the bracts more acutish, not strongly ob- 
tuse. Resembles A. C/aytoni in a slight tendency to a permanent 
axis, but much less so and only seeming so when young, the axis 
becoming lost or much overtopped at complete flowering. Re- 
sembles A. Claytoni and the Curvescentes in its frequent develop- 
ment of two contiguous sessile ovate-serrulate rameals at two-thirds 
distance upward on each otherwise-naked branch ; but these appear 
only on highly developed individuals. 
