Aster. COMPOSITE. 189 



ing to both ends : involucre 4 or 5 lines high, little or not at all imbricated ; its bracts all of 

 nearly equal length, some looser outermost not rarely quite herbaceous : rays 3 or 4 lines 

 long, violet or purplish, rarely almost white. — Diet. i. 306, chiefly (and partly A.paniculatus, 

 Lam.), fide herb. Par. A. cestivus, Ait. Kew. iii. 203; Willd. Spec. iii. 2030; Nees, Ast. 74 ; 

 ■a shorter-leaved cultivated form. A. eminens, Nees, Ast. 87, in part, perhaps also A. laxi- 

 folius, Nees, certainly Hook. Fl., in part. A. salicifolius, Willd. ? herb, (not Ait.), therefore 

 seemingly A. hiemalis, Nees, Ast. 77, said to blossom late. A. floribundus, Willd. fide spec. 

 cult. herb. Par. 1814, hardly of Spec. PI. A. virgineus, Nees, AsP. 88. A. squarrulosus, Nees, 

 Ast. 86 ? — Low grounds or along streams, Labrador to Montana, Slave Lake, south to 

 Canada and N. New England. Like other boreal species, flowers early when cultivated in 

 lower latitudes. 



Var. villioatilis. A small and low form, with simple stem (a foot or less high) and 

 midrib of narrow leaves beneath densely white-villous : heads few or solitary : rays deep 

 violet. — Northern Maine, at Fort Kent, Miss Furbish. 



u. Involucre of the middle-sized heads of firmer and more herbaceous or foliaceous-tipped and linear 

 to spatulate bracts, imbricated in few to several series, of more or less unequal length, tbeir 

 summits from slightly to squarrose-spreading: leaves of rather firm texture : rays violet: com- 

 paratively late-flowering. 



A. Novi-Belgii, L. Bather low, rarely tall, glabrous and smooth, or pubescent in lines on 

 the branches : leaves from oblong to linear-lanceolate, entire or sparsely or obscurely ser- 

 rate ; upper with sessile base partly clasping and not rarely somewhat auriculate : heads 

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

 flowered blue Aster of the Atlantic border, in low or wet grounds, truly polymorphous, both 

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

 with indigenous originals. — Spec. ii. 877 (truly founded on the A. Novce-Belgi<e, etc., Herm. 

 Hort. Lugd. 67, t. 69, raised from seed collected about the year 1 680 in the vicinity of New 

 York, whence the name, and probably represented by the plant of Hort. Cliff. 408, not by in- 

 digenous specimen in herb. Linn, from Kalm, which is A. punineus, L., nor by plant in herb, 

 from Upsal garden); Nees, Ast. 79; Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. xvii. 167. A. serotinus, Mill. 

 Diet., probably. A. floribundus, Willd. Spec. iii. 2048. Assume as most normal, if not the 

 original Leyden type, the common form away from influence of salt water, and with leaves not 

 thickish ; these from narrowly to oblong-lanceolate, their upper surface not rarely scabrous, 

 and linear involucral bracts with narrow and acute spreading or recurving upper portion. — 

 Common in wet grounds, New Brunswick and Canada to Georgia, chiefly eastward, but ex- 

 tending to Ohio and Illinois. A. eminens, var. virgineus, Lindl. Bot. Beg. t. 1656, appears to 

 be a nearly white-rayed form. A. laxus, Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 134, a very narrow-leaved 

 form, and A. prcealtus (Nees. ? ), Torr. & Gray, 1. c, one with broader leaves. A. longifolius, 

 Gray, Man. ed. 5, 233 ; Sprague, Wild Flowers, 49, t. 10. 



Var. laevigatus. Smooth and glabrous throughout or nearly so : leaves mostly ob- 

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

 abrupt or obscurely auriculate base : involucral bracts in few ranks, rather short, all not far 

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

 resembling A. versicolor except that the involucral bracts are much less imbricated and little 

 unequal. — A. Icevigatus, Lam. Diet. i. 306 ; Poir. Suppl. i. 498, not Willd. &c. A. mutabilis, 

 Ait. Kew. iii. 205 (cult. hort. Collinson & Kew, 1777, & herb. Jacq.) ; not L. by char., syn. ' 

 Pluk., nor syn. Herm. A. serotinus & Novi-Belgii, in part, Willd. Spec. iii. 2048 ; Nees, Syn. 

 Ast. 24. A. brumalis (also A. onustus, partly, & A. eminens, var.kcvigatus), Nees, Ast. 88, &c. 

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

 Newfoundland to New England : hardly any wild specimens exactly answering to the plant 

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



Var. litoreus. Stems rigid, low, or sometimes-3 or 4 feet high and then paniculately 

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

 what scabrous), oblong to lanceolate, upper partly clasping and sometimes auriculate : bracts 

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

 most with broadish or obtuse herbaceous and mostly thickish tips. — A. Novi-Belgii, L., as 

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

 authors, not L. A. adulterinus, Willd. Enum. 884; Lindl. Bot. Beg. t. 1571. Symphyotri- 

 chium unctuosum, Nees, Ast. 135. . The synonyms all from cultivated plants, less showy than 



