420 COMPOSITAE. Vor. III. 
34. Aster laévis L. Smooth Aster. 
Fig. 4315. 
Aster laevis L. Sp. Pl. 876. 1753. 
Aster laevis amplifolius Porter, Mem. Torr. Club 5: 
324. 1894. 
Aster laevis potomacensis Burgess; Britt. & Brown, 
Ill. Fl. 3: 369. 1898. 
Stem usually stout, glabrous, often glaucous, 
2°-4° high, branched or simple. Leaves thick, en- 
tire, or serrate, glabrous, slightly rough-margined, 
the upper all sessile and usually cordate-clasping, 
lanceolate, oblong-lanceolate, oblanceolate or 
ovate, acute or obtusish, 1-4’ long, 4’~-2’ wide, 
the basal and lower gradually narrowed into 
winged petioles, those of the branches often small 
and bract-like; heads usually numerous, about 1’ 
broad; involucre campanulate, its bracts rigid, 
acute, appressed, green-tipped, imbricated in sev- 
eral series; rays 15-30, blue or violet; pappus 
tawny; achenes glabrous or nearly so. 
Usually in dry soil, Maine to Ontario, Virginia, 
Alabama, Louisiana, Saskatchewan, Missouri and 
Colorado. Races differ in leaf-form. Sept.—Oct. 
35. Aster concinnus Willd. Narrow-leaved 
Smooth Aster. Fig. 4316. 
Aster concinnus Willd. Enum. 884. 1809. 
Similar to narrow-leaved forms of Aster laevis, 
and perhaps a race of that species, glabrous, or 
sparingly pubescent above, not glaucous; stem 
paniculately branched, 1°-3° high. Leaves light 
green, lanceolate to linear, entire, or sometimes ser- 
rulate, the upper sessile, somewhat clasping, 1’-3’ 
long, the lower and basal ones spatulate, or oblong, 
narrowed into margined petioles, sometimes coarsely 
toothed; heads usually numerous, about 10” broad; 
bracts of the involucre with rhomboid acute herba- 
ceous tips; rays violet to purple. 
Woodlands, Connecticut to Pennsylvania, Virginia, 
North Carolina, Missouri and Arkansas. Sept.—Oct. 
36. Aster purpuratus Nees. Southern 
Smooth Aster. Fig. 4317. 
Aster virgatus Ell. Bot. S. C. & Ga. 2: 353. 1824. Not 
Moench, 1802. 
A, purpuratus Nees, Gen. & Sp. Ast. 118. 1832. 
Stem slender, glabrous, simple, or branched 
above, 13°-3° high, the branches sometimes pu- 
berulent. Leaves firm, glabrous, dark green, en- 
tire, the upper sessile and clasping at the base, 
elongated-lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, acumi- 
nate, 2’-6’ long, 2’-4” wide, the lower and basal 
ones petioled, oblong-lanceolate, obtusish, those 
of the branches very small; heads rather few, 
loosely paniculate, 8’-12” broad; involucre cam- 
panulate to turbinate, its bracts coriaceous, linear, 
appressed, green-tipped, acute, imbricated in sev- 
eral series, the outer shorter; rays 5-10, blue or 
violet, 3-5” long, pappus tawny; achenes glabrous. 
Virginia and West Virginia to Georgia and Texas. 
Aug.—Sept. 
