270 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [16:6— Sept., 1920 



slight recognition. The list of these 12 follows in the order of 

 importance that the writer regards them. 1. The New England. 

 2. The New York. 3. The White Wood. 4. The Heart-leaved. 

 5. Michaelmas Daisy. 6. Late Purple (A. patens). 7. Starry 

 white (A. multiforns). 8. The Showy Aster (A. spectabilis) found 

 only near the coast. 9. The Rough leaved (with dainty violet 

 blur rays (A. radula). 10. Aster loevis (another light violet aster 

 that seems to have no common name. 11. The Panicled (A. 

 paniculatus) . 12. And the Upland White Aster. That Ellen 

 Miller describes as having "an individual excellence — existing 

 especially in the curve of the leaf." Not a great deal to boast of 

 most of us would say, but still there can be that excellence even 

 in the curl of a leaf, a character so full of admirable grace that one 

 can forget a paucity in the floral parts of a plant lost in the con- 

 templation a sight equally beautiful. I have not spoken of the 

 asters from a purely botanical point of view, and have not entered 

 into the question of their method of reproducing their kind or 

 how the wonderful flower that enters into the composition of the 

 asters golden disk is made up. It would make an extensive and 

 highly interesting study to discuss this phase of the composites, a 

 family in which the asters take a high place; but the story has been 

 told so often in a large number of text books and manuals that it 

 is the better plan to let this remain a plea for closer acquaintance- 

 ship with the asters individually than a talk of flower parts in the 

 language of the botanist. 



It ought to make the walk afield more delightful, more full of 

 real thrill and anticipatory excitement to see the asters in the dis- 

 tant meadows, and from afar, attempt to determine what parti- 

 cular one it may be from its height, form and color. The real 

 pleasure comes in knowing that you have the skill to name these 

 rare plants, and it loses none of its zest when one names the flower 

 from the distant road and later learns that he has not been mis- 

 taken. Walks afield in the bright days of autumn are made lovely 

 by the asters and we shall be the more elevated by these walks as 

 we know these flowers and can name them as we name eood friends. 



