Aster. COMPOSITiE. 183 



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

 tenuate at base: not glandular nor viscid, nor silky-canescent: akenes compressed, few-nerved. 

 — Homophylli, Nees. 



-I— Whole plant very smooth and glabrous (sometimes liispidulous roughness on leaf-margins or a 

 little pubescence on branchlets or peduncles): involucre of middle-sized or rather large heads 

 pluriserial, from turbinate to campanulate, of rather firm closely imbricated appressed bracts 

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

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

 ++ Typical species, usually pale and glaucescent or glaucous; with involucral bracts whitish-coria- 

 ceous below and abruptly green-tipped (most conspicuous in dried specimens): akenes 4-5- 

 ribbed: leaves on flowering branchlets commonly much reduced to rigid subulate bracts. 

 A. turbinellus, Lindl. Slender, 3 feet high, diffusely paniculate above : leaves light 

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

 long), scabrous-ciliolate : heads (half-inch or more high) terminating divergent and minutely 

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

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

 violet : akenes minutely pubescent. — Comp. Bot. Mag. i. 98, & DC. Prodr. v. 244 ; Torr. & 

 Gray, Fl. ii. 117. — Hillsides and plains, Illinois and Missouri to W. Arkansas and Louisiana. 

 Handsome species, flowering late. 

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

 virgate branches terminated with single heads; these and the flowers nearly as of A. tan-is: 

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

 usually long and narrow; those of the branchlets subulate-acute and rigid. — Sk. ii. 353; 

 Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 116; Chapm. Fl. 201. A. vimineus, Willd. Spec. iii. 2046 ? (fide herb., 

 but a peculiar and imperfect specimen), not Lam. nor Nees. A. purpuratus, Nees, Ast. 118, 

 & A. miser, Lam. Diet. i. 308. A. attenuatus, Lindl. in Comp. Bot. Mag. i. 97. A. gracikntus, 

 Torr. & Gray, 1. t. 166. — Upper S. Virginia 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. lsevis, L. Stouter, 2 to 4 feet high, rigid : leaves from ovate or oblong to lanceolate (4 or 

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

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

 soid-paniculate, on short and rigid branchlets : involucre campanulate or obscurely turbinate ; 

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

 20 or 30, broadish, sky-blue verging to violet : akenes glabrous or nearly so. — Spec. ii. 876 ; 

 Ait. Kew. iii. 206 ; Nees, Ast. 128, partly; Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 116 (the var. is the typical 

 plant); Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. xvii. 166. A. rubricaulis, Lam. Diet. i. 305 ; Nees, Ast. 131. 

 A. amplexicaulis, Muhl. in Willd. Spec. iii. 2046 ; Nees, 1. c, not of others. A. Pennsyl- 

 vanicus, Poir. Suppl. i. 498. A. cyaneus, Hoffm. Phyt. Blatt. 71, t. B, f. 1 ; Nees, 1. c. ; 

 Lindl. Bot. Reg. 1. 1495. A. glaucescens & A. politus, Nees, Synops. 23. A. Imvigatus, Hook. 

 Bot. Mag. t. 2995, not Lam. nor Willd. — Borders of woodland, in dry or barely moist 

 ground, Canada to Louisiana and west to the Rocky Mountains from Saskatchewan to New 

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



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

 of thinner texture, mostly attenuate-acute, the green tip less definite. — Valleys of the 

 Northern Bocky Mountains to Idaho, south to Wyoming, &c. 

 ++ ++ Ambiguous species, green, at least not glaucous: involucre greener and somewhat looser. 



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

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

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

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

 first. — Spec. iii. 2045 & Enum. ii. 885; Nees, Ast. 128. A. Imvigatus, Willd. 1. c. 2046 (in 

 part) ; Nees, 1. c. 129, not. Lam. A. Iceris of the same authors, Lindl. Bot. Beg. t. 1500. A. 

 mutabilis, Willd. 1. c. 2045; Nees, 1. c. 125. A. confertus, Nees, Ast. 146, white-fl. state. — 

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

 nous specimens hardly known. 



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

 often showing traces of pubescence in lines) : leaves pale green, lanceolate, mostly some- 



