ASTER AMBIGUUS 291 
cence; and acumination is but little developed i in its leaves. It is 
lous beneath; bracts with abrupt shallow-chanfer apex ; petioles 
persistent. 
53. Aster ambiguus Bernhardi in Nees. 
Slender smooth sparse-leaved plants with bright red stem, 
broad-cordate leaves, broad and persistent sinus, and heads suc- 
cessively developing laterally and downward into a cylindrical 
inflorescence of subequal umbelliform loose-flowered branches. 
Name given by Bernhardi, doubtless from its then uncertain affinity, and 
originally, BAFE merely as a botanical garden 
Fic. 68, e, f, g, A, the type-plant of Pa igi nd Nees as represented in 
hb. Gray ex dn Nees ex hort. Breslau ex hort. Erfurt, there cultivated under the name 
A. ambiguus and originally perhaps from Pa. in 1818—1820, e, upper half of plant, f, 
young shoot, with scales, primordials and radicals, g, a lower cauline, 4, a separated 
radical, dcin omitte 
En c, d, a similar native plant, from bankside fence-row above east 
bridge over Schoharie Cr. at Hunter, N. Y. Se., 5, '99; d, cluster of radials 
. ambiguus Bernhardi, Horti Vratisl. ex Horti Erfurt,’’ Nees, T Ast. 
138. es 
Stem 1% ft. or less, or sometimes 2 ft., very slender and erect, 
nearly straight, bright red, without obvious hair, with long inter- 
nodes, especially upward, slightly striate, and EU except for 
minute hair in lines about the axils and on 
Leaves nm apple-green or paler, firm and "Hichdy thickish, 
finely serrulat 
Leaf-form on re oo obtuse or soon acutish, with the broad 
sinus.at first deep but soon reduced ; such leaves continuing (finally 
with narrowed sinus and short narrow petiole) characteristically to 
the inflorescence ; or sometimes passing upward through a succes- 
sion of cordate-acuminate, ovate, elliptic and oblong leaves with 
short winged petioles. Ax<iles lanceolate, entire and sessile, or the 
lower axiles truncate with short petiole. Rameals ovate-oblong, 
sessile, 2, 3 or 4, much reduce 
p when fully developed in large plants, cylindrical- 
convex, composed of 10 or 12 subequal slender branches, the 
upper ones bearing heads in a dense convex mass or a high dome, 
with several nearly equal lateral branches below. In all branches 
the few heads are borne in a loose terminal cluster of subumbellate 
form, the central heads much earlier, and flowering while the sur- 
rounding lateral buds are yet very short-pedicelled or sessile. 
