HARPER'S GUIDE TO WILD FLOWERS 



top. Flowers, medium-sized, panicled or racemose on the spread- 

 ing branches. September to November. 



Common East and South in dry woods, copses, and fields. 

 Heart-leaved Aster. Common Blue Wood Aster 



A. cordifblius — Color, pale blue; the disk sometimes reddish 

 or purplish. Leaves, thin, petioled, strongly heart-shaped at 

 base, 2 to 5 inches long, sparsely hairy on the surface and along 

 the veins, the lower petioles fringed with short hairs. Bracts of 

 the involucre tipped with green points. Stem, smooth, much 

 branched, so as to seem bushy, i to 5 feet high. Flowers, small, 

 crowded in panicles. August to October. 



Woods and thickets in all the Eastern States. There are 

 many varieties of this aster, depending upon slight differ- 

 ences in stem and leaves. 



Smooth Aster 



A. laevis. — Color, blue violet. Leaves, oblong, tapering, rough- 

 margined, those below on winged petioles, those above sessile, 

 with heart-shaped bases, strongly clasping the stem; those on the 

 flowering branches narrowed to bracts. Heads of -flowers, crowded 

 in a close panicle. Stem, stout, smooth, 2 to 4 feet high. August 

 to October. 



Dry soil, Maine to Michigan and southward. One of our most 

 beautifully colored asters, found in woods or along roadsides. 



Bushy Aster 



A, dumosus. — Color of rays, pale purple or blue. Leaves, long, 

 narrow, entire, acute, with rough margins; the upper, small, 

 crowded, sessile, often turned back. Heads, small, panicled, often 

 a single one at the end of the branch. August to October. 



Common in sandy soil, along paths and roadsides, in fields, 

 varying in color to a very pale violet or white. From Maine 

 to Michigan and southward. A pretty, cheerful little aster, 

 often covered with dust along the highways, but bravely 

 putting out its blue flowers. (See illustration, p. 361.) 



A, Uterifldras Color, white or light purple. (See White 



Flowers, p. 136.) 



A, paniculktus Color, white or pale violet. (See White 



Flowers, p. 136.) 



Rush Aster 



A. junceus. — Color, pale violet, sometimes reddish or white. 

 Leaves, linear, very narrow, and 3 to 6 inches long, entire or a 



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