176 COMPOSITE. Aster. 



A. spectabilis, Ait. A foot or more high, bearing several somewhat paniculate or cymose 

 heads .- leaves oblong-lanceolate or the lower spatulate- or oval-oblong, obscurely serrate or 

 the upper entire : involucre hemispherical, half-inch high ; the bracts glaudular-puberulenf 

 and somewhat viscid, upper half of most of them herbaceous and recurved-spreaUing : rays 

 numerous, three-fourths inch long or more, bright violet. — Kew. iii. 209 ; Nutt. Gen. ii. 157 ; 

 Nees, Ast. 42; Lindl. Bot.'Reg. t. 1527 ; Torr. Fl. N. Y. i. 336, t. 51. A. elegans, Willd. 

 Spec. iii. 2042 (ex. char, and mainly herb.) ; Wenderoth in Act. Soc. Nat. Marb. ii. 17. A. 

 speciosus, Hornem. Hort. Hafn. ii. 816, fide DC. — Sandy soil, Massachusetts to Delaware," 

 near the coast, and perhaps farther southward, where it is replaced by the next. 



A. surculosus, Michx. A foot or less high from long filiform rootstocks, bearing solitary 

 or few pedunculate heads, which are generally smaller than those of A. spectabilis, but not 

 dissimilar : leaves entire or nearly so, rigid, lanceolate or the upper linear and the radical 

 oblong-lanceolate: involucre sometimes puberulent, but hardly glandular. — Fl. i. 112; Nutt. 

 Gen. ii. 157 ; Ell. Sk. ii. 354, ex char.; Nees, Ast. 40; Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 109. — Moist 

 rocky and gravelly ground, or sometimes in sand, coast of New Jersey to Georgia, and on 

 the Blue Ridge in North and South Carolina, where it was first collected by Michaux, and 

 where it abounds. 



A. gracilis, Nutt. About a foot high, slender, from slender and occasionally tuberous- 

 thickened rootstocks, smoothish, not glandular nor viscid, bearing few or several cymosely 

 disposed small heads : leaves oblong-lanceolate, entire or nearly so, small (an inch or two 

 long, 2 to 6 lines wide) : involucre turbinate, a quarter or third of an inch long, glabrous, 

 coriaceous and whitish, with very short deltoid or ovate green tips, only about 30-flowered : 

 rays 9 to 12, a quarter to half an inch long : akenes rather short. — Gen. ii. 158 ; Torr. & 

 Gray, 1. t. — Pine barrens, New Jersey to N. Carolina, also E. Kentucky and Tennessee, 

 according to Nuttall. The larger forms closely related to A. spectabilis, with which it is asso- 

 ciated ; the more slender ones nearly approach Sericocarpus. 



■h. ++ Involucre hardly if at all squarrose; the tips of the bracts less definite and less spreading: 

 stems very leafy: leaves pinnately veiny and reticulated, acutely serrate, more or less scabrous: 

 heads middle-sized, corymbosely cymose or rarely solitary : style-appendages rather short and 

 thick : Northern and Western species. 



A. radula, Ait. Nearly glabrous or with some scattered hairs: stem slender and strict, a 

 foot or two high, bearing few or solitary mostly slender-pedunculate heads : leaves veiny, 

 oblong-lanceolate or narrower, acuminate, somewhat hispidulous-scabrous, thinnish (inclined 

 to be rugulose in drying, about 2 inches long, 3 to 9 lines wide), each margin with 3 to 7 

 serratures toward the middle ; upper cauline sometimes oblong-ovate with subcordate sessile 

 base : involucre nearly hemispherical, 3 or 4 lines high ; its bracts in few series, obtuse, 

 ciliolate : the outermost oblong, inner narrower, shorter than the disk : rays half-inch long, 

 pale violet: akenes glabrous, striate-nerved. — Kew. iii. 210; DC. Prodr. 1. c. 230; Torr. & 

 Gray, El. ii. 106 ; Torr. Fl. N. Y. i. t. 50. A. nudiflorus, Nutt. Gen. ii. 157, a broader- 

 leaved and most luxuriant southern form. Was cultivated in 1839 in the Berlin Garden 

 as Biotia cornmixta, var. stricta. — Swamps, Delaware to E. Massachusetts, west to the 

 mountains of Pennsylvania (Pocono), thence north to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. 

 Passes into 



Var. strictus. Reduced boreal form, a span to a foot high, with either oblong or 

 narrowly lanceolate barely serrulate leaves, and solitary or rarely 2 or 3 heads. — A. biflorus, 

 Michx. El. ii. Ill ; Torr. & Gray, 1. c. A. strictus, Pursh, Fl. ii. 556. — Higher mountains 

 of New England to Labrador. 



A. Sibiricus, L. A span to a foot high, often fastigiately branched from the base, some- 

 what cinereous-pubescent or puberulent, or the foliage scabrous : heads solitary, terminating 

 the stem or corymbiform branches: leaves oblong-spatulate to broadly lanceolate, acutely 

 more or less serrate (an inch or more, or in largest form even 3 inches long) : involucre 

 broadly campanulate, 3 lines high, shorter than the disk ; its bracts narrowly lanceolate, with 

 mostly acute and loose herbaceous tips : rays 3 or 4 lines long, violet : akenes pilose-pubes- 

 cent. — Spec. ii. 872 (Gmel. Fl. Sibir. ii. t. 80. f. 2), larger than American form ; Herder in 

 Radde, Reis. iii. 11. A. montanus, Richards. App. Frankl. Jour. 32; Torr. & Gray, Fl. 

 ii. 107. A. Richardsonh, Spreng. Syst. iii. 528; Hook. Fl. ii. 7. A. Espenbergensis, Nees, 

 Ast. 36. A. Prescoltii, Lindl in DC. Prodr. v. 231. — Arctic coast and Alaskan Islands to 

 Rocky Mountains in Wyoming and Montana. (N. E. Asia to Arctic Eu.) 



