Aster. COMPOSITE. 



189 



log to both ends : mrolTicre i or 5 Une^ high, little or not at aU imbricated ; its bracts aU of 

 nearly equal Ic-n^tl,. some looser oatermost not rarelv quite herbaceous: ravs 3 or 4 lines 

 long v,olet or purplish, rarely almost white.-Dict i. 306, chiefly (and p^nW A . panlcjatus. 

 Lam.), fide herb. Par. .1. <fi/H-«.s, Ait. Kew. iii. 203; WiUd. Spe^ iii ■'(&,- Xee^ \<r -4 • 

 a shorter-leaved cultivated form. A. emfnens, Xee<. Ast. -7. in part, perhap- al4' 4 fax/- 

 j'j .a.<, ^ee-. certainly Hook. FL, in part. .1. salicifolius, WiUd. ? herb, (not Ait ) therefore 

 seemmgly -1. hemal,., Xees, Ast. 77, .-aid to l.L,...arn late. A. /loribund,i.^, WiM Me n^en 

 cult. herb. Par. 1^14. hardly of ^J,e, PL A. virgineus, Xees, Ast. SS. .1. squarruios,is \,- -< 

 Asr. Sfil-Low grounds or along strea...^. Labrador to Montana, .sjave Lake srmth to 

 Canada and >. Xe^- England. Like other boreal speties, flowers earlv when cultivated in 

 lower latitudes. ' 



Var. viUicaulis. A smaU and low- form, with simple stem (a foot or less hit-h \ and 

 midrib of narrow leaves beneath densely white-villous : hea-Os few or solira^^- ■ ravs deep 

 violet. — Northern Maine, at Fort Kent, _!//.>.> Furhislt. 



c. Involucre of the middle-sized hea.'s of fim'ier and more herbaceous or f oliaccous-tipped and linear 

 to spatulate bracts, Imbricated in few to several series, of more or le« unequal leIlL^h. their 

 summit- from sllghlly to squarrose-spreading: leaves of rather firm texture: lavs vi„kt: com- 

 parativeh* LiTe-doweriiig. 



-A. Novi-Bslgii, L. Rather low, rarely tall, ghibrons and smooth, or putesf ent in line= on 

 the brandies : leaves from oblong to linear-lanceolate, entire or sparselv or olisenrely ser- 

 rate: upper with sessile ba.se partly clasping and not rarely s.Jme^^hat' anricuLite; heads 

 mostly 4 or .5 lines high and bright blue-violet rays of equal length. — The commonesr larer- 

 flowered blue Aster .jt the Atlantic border, in low or wet grounds, truly polymorphoiLs. both 

 in wild forms and in those of long European cultivation, many of wliich are not identified 

 with indigenous oriiriuals. — Sper. ii. 677 (truly founded on the J. AV^-Bc/yV. etc., Herm. 

 H'..n. Lug.J. 67, t. 69, raised from seed coDected about the year 16?0 in the vicinity of New- 

 York, wlience the name, and probably represeuted by the plant of Hort. Clifi. 40-, not bv in- 

 digenous -perimeu in herb. Linn.from Kalm, which is A puniceus, L., nor bv plant in herb, 

 from Up^al garden); Xees, Ast. 79: Gray, Pror. Am. Acad. xvii. 167. A. ser<jtmus,'S\\]\. 

 Diet., probably. A. fl'jrihiiiidiis, ^Vllld. .Sp«c. iii. 204S. Assume as most normal, if not the 

 original Leyden type, the common form away from influence of -alt water, and mth leaves not 

 thickish; these from narrowly to obloug-lauceolate, their upper surface not rarely SL-ab^rous, 

 and linear involucral bracts with narrow and acute spreaJing or recurviiii' upper portion. — 

 Common in wet grotmds, Xew Brunswick and Canada to Georgia, chiefly eastward, but ex- 

 tending to Ohio and Illinois. A. emauns, var. virgineas, Lindl Bot. Reo-. t. 1656, appears to 

 be a nearly white-rayed form. A. laxiis, Torr. & Gray, El. ii. 134, a veiy narrow-leave J 

 form, and A. prcealtus (Poir. ?), Torr. & Gray, 1. e., one with broader leaves. A. longifoliu.s. 

 Gray, Man. ed. .5. 2-3-3 : Spragne, Wild Eiow-ers, 49, t. 10. 



Var. Isevigatus. Smooth and glabrous thronghont or nearly so : leaves mostlv ob- 

 long-lanreolate, little if at all thickened; upper cauline disposed to be half-clasping by an 

 abrupt or obscurely aurienlate base : inTolncral bracts in few ranks, rather short, all not far 

 from same length, loosely erect, and with comparatively short acutish herbaceous tips ; thus 

 resembling A. v^rsico^or exeep>t that the involncral bracts are much less imbricated and little 

 unequal. — A. Irei-if/ntK.s, Lam. Diet. i. 306; Poir. SuppL i. 496, not WiUd. &c. A. imdabilii. 

 Ait. Kew. iii. 20-5 (cult. hort. CoUinson & Eew, 1777, & herb. Jacq.); not L. by char., syn. 

 Pluk , nor svn. Herm. A. serotinus & Xori-Belgii, in part, WiUd. Spec. iii. 2046 : yees, Syn. 

 Ast. 24. A. brumalis (al-o A. ontist"-^. partly, ijc A. eminr-n.?, \SiT.l(Evigatus), Xees. Ast. 66, &.Q. 

 A. argulus. Xees. Ast. 69, fide spec. Schultz Bip., hort. Bonn. ; but char, does not accord. — 

 Xewfonndland to Xew England : hardly any wild specimens exactly answering to the plant 

 ctiltivated and even naturalized in Europe ; hut many that connect with the following, viz. : — 

 Var. litoreus. Stem? rigid, low, or sometimes 3 or 4 feet hiifh and then paniculately 

 much branched, very leafy : leaves thickish and firm, very smooth ( rarely upper face some- 

 what scabrous), oblong to lanceolate, upper partly cla-sping and sometimes aurienlate : bracts 

 of the involucre loosely imbricated in several ranks, outer commonly spatulate, all but inner- 

 most w-ith broadish or obtu>e herbaceous and mostly thickish tips. — A. Xovi-Belgii, L., as 

 to Hort. Cliff., at least herb. Cliff. A. tardiflorus, Wjlld. Spec. iii. 2049, and of most later 

 authors, not L. A. aduUerinvs, Willd. Enum. 664: Lindl. Bot. Recf. t. 1-571 S*jTnph>jofrl- 

 chium unctuosum, Ifees, Ast. 135. The smonyms all from cultivated plants, less showy than 



