Asters 



W. P. Alexander 

 Natural History Museum, Buffalo, N. Y. 



'The lands are lit 



With all the autumn blaze of Golden Rod 

 And everywhere the purple asters nod 

 And bend and wave and flit." — H. H. 



The asters lend a crown 

 of glory to the years most 

 wholesome season, autumn. 

 They are the children of the 

 days when spring's opulence 

 is past, and the busy sum- 

 mer has given way to the 

 long full hours of fall, the 

 richness of the ripening field 

 and the hillside masked in 

 gold. We speak of asters 

 and the mind unconsciously 

 feels the lure of September 

 and October, on the sub- 

 stratum of our mental 

 vision a picture is subtly 

 woven by the alchemistic 

 power of some irresistible 

 spirit and the open road 

 stretches away before us, 

 banked to the right and to 

 the left with endless vistas 

 of regal bloom, that of the 

 New England aster. We 

 will study some of our com- 

 moner asters in this story, 

 and if ought of queenly 

 beauty argues for pre- 

 cedence, the stately New 



England aster easily takes the first place, and will here take its 



true rank and position. 



266 



Asters 



