CONCERNING ASTERS 289 



Daisy. This last name makes me think of winter 

 and Jack Frost just as much as Frostweed, only 

 Michaelmas is pleasant to think about, while plain 

 frost is disagreeable. 



Close beside Michaelmas Daisy we sometimes 

 find Starry Aster, or White Wreath. Its flower- 

 heads are smaller even than those of Michaelmas 

 Daisy, and they grow all along the branches. 

 These plants look very much like bushes. Some- 

 times they are so short I have to stoop down to 

 them, but often they grow so tall that they make 

 me stretch up to reach the branches. Any child 

 might learn to know this one of the white Asters 

 because its leaves are small and stiff, and look as 

 if they were trying to be baby pine needles. 



When Little Trudy found out this Aster was 

 called White Wreath, she thought it was a wild 

 flower that had come just for her to weave into 

 wreaths. She picked a large bunch of it and sat 

 for a long time making one for Tommy's head. 

 But when it was finished the flowers had faded, so 

 Little Trudy threw it away, and called it a naughty 

 flower. Since then she has found out that some 

 of the purple Asters also fade very quickly. 



We only know the names of a few purple Asters. 

 Tommy tries to tell them apart by looking very 

 sharply at their leaves, and counting the number 

 of their ray flowers, as the long, narrow outside 

 ones are called. Then he finds them in his books, 

 and we learn their real names. Professor Bonn 



