Aster. COMPOSITE. 183 



* 8. Heads and inflorescence various: no cordate petioled leaves; radical leaves all acute or at- 

 tenuate at base: not glandular nor viscid, nor i-ilky-canescent: akenes compressed, £c^^-DerveJ. 

 — IL.i.MupnYLLi. Xees. 



-1— 'Whole -plant very smooth and glabrous (sometimes hispidulous roughness on leaf-margins or a 

 little pubt-scence on branclUets or pedui.cles): involucre of middle-sized or rather lar^e heads 

 pluriserial, from turbinate to campanulate, of rather firm closc-ly imbricated appressed bracts 

 with short green tips, outer successively shorter: leaves of lirm texture, entire, or sometimes 

 with a few teeth : rays of the sliowy heads violet or blue, rarely pale. — Laves. 

 ■H- Typical specie-, usually pale and glauce^cent or glaucous; with involucral bracts whitish-coria- 

 cenus below and abruptly green-tipped (most conspicuous in dried specimens): akenes i-^y- 

 ribbed: leaves on flowering branchlets commonly much reduced to ri^'id subulate bracts. 

 A. turbinellus, Lisdl. slender. 3 feet high, diffusely paniculate above : leaves light 

 green, not rigid, from oblong to narrowly lanceulate. and all with narrow base (2 or 3 inches 

 long), si,;ibrous-ciliolate : heads (half-inch or more high) terminating; divergent and minute! v 

 bracteolate slender branchlets : involucre elongated-turbinate or snbclavate ; its many-ranked 

 bracts with very slifirt and dbtuse green tips : rays a third to half inch long, bright blue- 

 violet : akenes minutely pubescent. — Cotnp. Bot. ilag i. 9S. i DC. Prodr. r. 2-14 : Torr. & 

 Gray, Fl. ii. 117. — Hillsides and plains, Illinois and jVIissouri to AV. ^Vrkansas and Louisiana- 

 Handsome species, flowering late. 

 -A. virgatus, Ell. Slender, strict and simple, with few or .several racemose heads, or with 

 virgate branches terminated witli single heads: these and the fluwers nearly as of A. laris: 

 cauline leaves lanceolate or linear, of firm texture, little it at all dilated at base : lower ones 

 usually long and narrow; those of tlie branchlets subulate-acute and rigid. — ."^k. ii. 553; 

 Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 116; Chapm. Fl. 201. .1. vimineus, ^YiIld. Spec. iii. MiS ? (fide herb., 

 but a peculiar and imperfect specimen), not Lam. nor Xees. A. purjmraius, Xees. Ast. US, 

 & -1. miser, Lam. Diet. i. -JOs. A. aUeimatm. LincU. in Comp. Bot. Mag. i. 97. A. gracUentus, 

 Torr. & Gray, 1. c. 16B. — Upper X. Carolina to Louisiana and Texas. Form with narrow 

 and linear leaves (lower 3 or 4 inches long by 2 or 3 lines wide) seems very distinct : broader- 

 leaved forms pass into the next. 

 "A. lEevis, L. Stouter, 2 to 4 feet high, rigid : leaves from ovate or ohlong to lanceolate (4 or 

 5 inches long, decreasing upward) ; radical and lowest cauline contracted below into a winged 

 petiole ; upper all with auricnlate or subcordate partly clasping base : heads sparsely thyr- 

 soid-paniculate, on thi at and rigid branchlets • involucre campanulate or obscurely turbinate ; 

 the whitish coriaceous Ijracts bearing abrupt rhomboid or deltoid short green tips : rays 

 20 or 30, broadish, sky-blue verging to violet : akenes glabrous or nearly so. — Sjiec. ii. S76 ; 

 Ait. Kew. iii. 206 ; Xees, Ast. 12S, partly; Torr. &, Gray, Fl. ii. 216 (the var. 3 l? the typical 

 plant) ; Grav, Proc. Am. Acad. xvii. 166. A, rubricauUs, Lam. Diet. i. 305 : Xees, Ast. 131. 

 A. amplexicauUs, :Mubl. in WOld. Spec. iii. 2046; Xees. 1. c. not of others. A. Pennsyl- 

 vanicus, Poir. Su]j]il. i. 49S. A. cyaneus, Hoffm. Phvt. Blatt. 71, t B, f. 1 ; Xees, 1. c. ; 

 Lindl. Bot. Eeg. t. 1495. A. glaucescois & A. politus, Xees, Synops. 2:3. A. larlrjatus. Hook. 

 Bot. MaiT. t. 2.39.5. not Lam. nor WOld. — Borders of woodland, in dry or barely moist 

 around, Canada to Louisiana and west to the Eocky Mountains from Sa.-katrhewan to Xew 

 Slexico. A form from Fort Edward, X. Y. ( Vanderberg), bore white rays changing to rose. 



Var. Geyeri. A foot or two high : involucre broader and less imbricated ; its bra. ts 

 of thinner texture, mostly attenuate-acute, the green tip less definite. — ^'alIeys of the 

 Xorthern Rocky Motmtains to Idaho, south to Wyoming. &c. 



^H- +-i- Ambignous species, green, at least not glaucous: involucre greener and somewhat looser. 

 A. versicolor, Willd. Leafy up to the more corT.Tnbosely disposed inflorescence: leaves 

 thinner than in preceding, bright green, oblong-lanceolate, obscurely if at all auricnlate and 

 not broadened at insertion, lower with some sharp serratnres : involucre short-campanulate : 

 ravs " changing from white to deep violet," or commonly pale or bright violet from the 



first. Sj.ec. iii. 204.5 & Ennm. ii. 8S5 ; Xees. Ast. 12.?. A. Itevigatus. WiUd. 1. c. 2046 (in 



part) ; Xees. 1. c. 129. not Lam. A. Icevis of the same authors, Lindl. Bot. Eeg. t. 1500. A. 

 mutabilis, "SVilld. 1. c. 2045; X'ees. 1. c. 125. A. confertus, Xees. Ast. 146, white-fl. state.— 

 Common in European gardens, doubtless from Atlantic X. America ; but decisive indige- 

 nous s]iecimens hardly known. 

 A. concinnus, Willd. Stem and paniculate branches slender, 1 to 3 feet high (above 

 often showiug traces of pubescence in lines I : leaves pale green, lanceolate, mostly some- 



