ASTER CASTANEUS 201 
Division C. TENEBROSIAN ASTERS. 
Thinnest smoothest leaves. Disks with less red or none. 
Subdivision A. BRACTS OBTUSE, VERY NARROW. 
Sp. 26, 27; A. castaneus and A, olivaceus. 
26. ASTER CASTANEUS Burgess. 
Wand-like swaying dull-green plants with many ovate-lanceolate 
caulines and rameals, minutely roughened texture, inflorescence of 
fastigiated arch-top branches, the pedicels prolonged, filiform and 
upcurved, the rays quickly pendulous, long remaining snowy- 
white, the disks dull rose-brown becoming chestnut-color (whence 
the name, L. castanea, the chestnut-tree). 
Fic. 35, plant from Hillview, N. Y. vic., Se. 15, 97, in hb. Bu. ; 4, char- 
acteristic leaf-form ; d, occasional lower leaf. 
A. castaneus Burgess in Small’s S. E. Flora, 1211. 1903, with original de- 
scription : 
“ Stem glabrate, terete, graceful and wand-like, reddish-brown 
or greenish, with about twelve delicate straight darker striae, and 
becoming sinuous in the inflorescence. Predominant leaf-blades 
remote, very thin, of a dense and hard texture, minutely granular- 
roughened when dry, ovate-lanceolate, closely slit-serrate, often 
unequally decurrent upon the short slender petiole; the lowest 
leaves much shorter, ovate-acuminate, coarsely serrate, and with 
a moderate sinus; rameal leaves lanceolate-acuminate or often all 
crescent-like and decurved, sessile by a short cuneate base. In- 
florescence nearly naked, narrow, composed of several upcurved 
slender unequal branches bearing close convex clusters, all in 
flower at once and very short-lived. Pedicels long, filiform, up- 
curved, sometimes bearing small circular bracteals or discules. 
Bracts narrow, linear-obtuse, pale, with bright-green tips. Rays 
. often 9, linear, snow-white, excessively thin and soon pendulous. 
Disks soon turning to rose-brown, sienna or chestnut-color. Re- 
sembles A. divaricatus L.; differs in all the above characters, 
especially in form of inflorescence, bracts and leaves. — In clayey 
spots amid swamps, near N. Y. City, also Conn. and L. Erie to 
No. Car. Early fall. — Type, Hillview, N. Y., Se. 15, '97, Bu. 
u ” * 
Supplementary remarks. Stem 2-3 ft. high, often decumbent, 
normally forming swaying masses where each stem supports the 
other. Rootstocks short, deep, pulling up with difficulty. : 
Leaf-form characteristically ovate-lanceolate with rounded 
