HARPER'S GUIDE TO WILD FLOWERS 



Stem, roughish, simple, or branched near the top, very leafy, 6 

 to 24 inches high. July to September. 



Bogs near the coast, from New York and New Jersey north- 

 ward. 



Purple-stem Aster- 



A, puniceus. — Color of long rays, lilac blue to paler, almost 

 white. Heads, 1 to i\ inches broad, showy, with short pedicels, 

 numerous, in panicles or corymbs. Leaves, broad in the middle, 

 lance-shape, pointed, with eared bases, clasping the stem, rough 

 above and on the midrib beneath, coarsely toothed, 3 to 6 inches 

 long. Stem, tall and stout, rough-hairy, with red or purple stripes 

 upon it, 3 to 8 feet high. July to November. 



A common, handsome species, recognized by its reddish 

 stem. It abounds in low thickets and swamps, where it holds 

 its own with tall shrubs, and spreads its rich panicle of blos- 

 soms, coloring the autumn landscape. New England to Michi- 

 gan, Ohio, and North Carolina. (See illustration, p. 365.) 



Slender or Tuber Aster 



A. gracilis, — Color of the 9 to 15 rays, violet. Stem, slender, 

 low, 1 to 1 J feet high, slightly rough, branched above, bearing 

 numerous heads of flowers. Leaves, small, roughish, those below 

 oval, pointed, with long, slender petioles; those above, linear, 

 small, sessile, slightly clasping. July to September. 



In dry, sandy soil, as the pine barrens of New Jersey, south 

 to Tennessee and Kentucky. 



Crooked-stem Aster 



A, prenanthoides. — Color, violet. Rays, 20 to 30, narrow, 

 drooping, the heads about 1 inch broad, with small disk. Leaves, 

 smooth underneath, rough above, ovate to lance-shape, broad 

 and toothed in the middle, narrowed near the base, then sud- 

 denly spreading into an eared base which clasps the stem, 3 to 6 

 inches long. Stem, hairy in lines, crooked, branched above, 1 

 to 2 feet high. August to October. 



Wet soil, woods and borders of streams, New England to 

 Virginia, Kentucky, and westward. 



Fleabane. Robin's Plantain 



Erigeron pulchettus. — Family, Composite. Color, light purple. 

 Heads of flowers, with 1 or 2 rows of long narrow rays, all of 

 which are pistillate, on slender peduncles. Leaves, those on stem 

 sessile, scattered, pointed, rough on margins, entire, partly clasp- 

 ing, oblong to lance -shape; those at the root, tufted, rough, 



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