WILD FLOWERS OF NEW YORK 309 



Starved or Calico Aster 

 Aster lateriflorus (Linnaeus) Britton 



Plate 246b 



Stems slender, divergently branched, nearly smooth or puberulent, 

 chiefly erect, 1 to 5 feet high. Basal leaves ovate, slender-petioled ; stem 

 leaves broadly lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, pointed, 2 to 5 inches long, 

 one-half to 1 inch wide, more or less toothed. Leaves of the branches 

 smaller, oblong or linear-oblong. Heads of flowers one-fourth to one-half 

 of an inch broad, in one-sided racemes on the branches, usually numerous 

 and crowded. Bracts of the turbinate involucres linear-oblong, blunt or 

 somewhat pointed, overlapping in about four series, their short, green tips 

 appressed or slightly spreading. Ray flowers numerous, short, white or 

 pale purple; disk flowers purplish; pappus white. 



In dry or moist soil, open woods, thickets or fields, Nova Scotia to 

 western Ontario, south to North Carolina, Louisiana and Texas. Variable 

 and consisting of several races or varieties, differing in leaf form, inflor- 

 escence and pubescence. Flowering from August to October. 



Mountain or Whorled Aster 



Aster acuminatus Michaux 



Plate 247 



Stems zigzag, corymbosely branched above, smooth or minutely 

 pubescent, usually leafless below, 1 to 3 feet high. Leaves thin, broadly 

 oblong, sharp pointed at the apex, narrowed to a somewhat cuneate, sessile 

 base, coarsely and sharply toothed on the margins, smooth or pubescent 

 above and pubescent on the veins beneath, 3 to 6 inches long, one-half to 

 1 \ inches wide, the upper leaves often closer together than the lower ones. 

 Heads of flowers several or numerous, 1 to \\ inches broad; bracts of the 

 nearly hemispheric involucre very narrow and long pointed, the outer ones 

 much shorter. Ray flowers twelve to eighteen in number, one-half to 

 two-thirds of an inch long, white, sometimes purplish; pappus soft, fine and 

 nearly white. 



