306 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



the uppermost sessile and pointed. Inflorescence hairy and glandular, 

 broadly corymbose and more or less irregular ; heads of flowers each about 

 one-half of an inch high ; peduncles rigid, thickish; ray flowers about sixteen, 

 each about one-half of an inch long, chiefly lavender colored, sometimes violet 

 or paler blue; bracts conspicuously green- tipped, the lower ones pointed, the 

 inner ones oblong and blunt; disk flowers turning reddish brown with age. 

 In moist or dry, shaded places, Quebec to Minnesota, south to North 

 Carolina. Flowering in August and September. Consists of numerous 

 races, many of them described as species, differing in leaf character, pubes- 

 cence, shape of inflorescence and other characteristics. 



Red-stalked or Purple-stemmed Aster 

 Aster puniceus Linnaeus 



Plate 241 



Stem rather stout, more or less branched above, hispid with stiff hairs 

 or nearly smooth, reddish, 2 to 8 feet high. Leaves lanceolate to oblong- 

 lanceolate, long pointed, sessile and clasping the stem by a broad or nar- 

 rowed base, sharply toothed or nearly entire, usually rough above and 

 pubescent on the midrib or smooth below, 3 to 6 inches long, one-half to 

 1 \ inches broad; bracts of the hemispheric involucre linear or oblong and 

 long pointed, overlapping in about two series, smooth or ciliate, green, 

 loose and spreading, nearly equal in length; ray flowers twenty to forty in 

 number, violet-purple or sometimes paler, one-half of an inch long or longer, 

 showy; pappus nearly white. 



In swamps, marshes and along margins of ponds, Newfoundland to 



Manitoba, south to Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio and Minnesota. Flowering 



from July to late fall. 



Late Purple Aster 



Aster patens Alton 



Plate 242a 



Stems rather stiff, slender, somewhat rough, 1 to 3 feet high, with 

 several spreading branches toward the summit. Leaves ovate-oblong to 

 oblong-lanceolate, rough or pubescent, thick and somewhat rigid, clasping 



