194 DESCRIPTION OF ASTER; DIVARICATI 
Lower caulines early deciduous, less toothed, the teeth couch- 
ant or straightish ; the form varying, often ovate-lanceolate or 
ovate-triangular, with truncate brace-base and narrow slender 
petiole. 
Lowest caulines sometimes like the last, but often of a new 
type, paraboloid with rounded i ae rounded swelling basal lobes, 
and broad rounded or bicurve sin 
Axiles very long, truelliform or  trowel-shaped, 7. e., lance-tri- 
angular with straight sides and rounded truncate-base, acuminate, 
sharply slit-toothed, witli short broad cuneate wing or sessile ; often 
much longer and larger than the caulines, and in original type 
about 3 x 14%. Rameals or the lower ones, lance-oblong, acute, 
obscurely slit-serrulate. Ramulars soon suborbicular, !4 in. 
broad or all much smaller, entire or nearly so, often approximate 
in threes, giving, especially in much refracted inflorescences, a 
suggestion of verticillate development. 
Leaf-texture very peculiar, firm, thinnish, very smooth to the 
touch during growth ; minutely roughened above when dry, with 
short scattered close-appressed hair. Leaves apple-green, much 
paler beneath, turning fawn-color and yellowish in Sept. or Oct. 
Hair almost absent; under a lens the stem commonly shows 
none, the petioles merely a few ciliations ; beneath, the narrow 
imposed veins bear scattering hairs ; on the ‘pedicels some puberu- 
lence, and a little ciliation on the bract cts. 
Inflorescence diffuse, in well-grown plants very copious, 2 ft. 
or more broad, neat and clean in habit, semi-nude, repeatedly sub- 
orbicularly tribracteate, with long straight filiform pedicels and 
peduncles, which are widely divergent or often highly refracted. 
Pedicels sometimes 1 % in. long, but more of them 1% inch. 
Bracts lingual, coriaceous, with broad and deep dark green 
tip, otherwise pale green; all nearly alike, often with a minute 
acute point at the otherwise abruptly rounded apex 
Rays clear white, eight or sometimes more, soon reflexed and 
pendant, often quickly becoming deep rose-purple. Disks warm 
honey-yellow, soon deep maroon or rose-brown or rich crimson. 
— The type, combining in one all the above characters, was 
abundant beneath the south end of Split Rocks, near Yonkers, 
1897, but was nearly exterminated by trampling and clearing in 
1900, though a number of plants were reasserting themselves, 
Se. 1903 and 1904. 
More commonly, examples by omitting some one or two of its 
peculiar leaf-forms and by enlarging others, assume widely variant 
aspects, giving rise to some of the forms enumerated below ; many 
such occurring near the type, 1897-1903. 
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