THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



143 



blue which the frost-nipped fields and woods display. And 

 even the less attractive white kinds are of many varieties. The 

 weediest of all the cheeky, shrubby species that advance even 

 to the ugly hedgerows of civilization and make them less ugly 

 are worthy of admiration and respect. 



Incomparably the most beautiful of the aster tribe is the 

 misnamed New England aster, which is common outside of 

 New England, but rather rare in New England. This is the 

 queen of the autumn gypsies of Flora's world. She is most at 

 home where she can queen it from some quiet brook bank, 

 bending over the ripple, or haughtily receding to the sunny 

 slopes. Hers is a regal purple far more magnificent than any 

 the other species can show, and by some perversion of com- 

 pensation her flower head is much larger and showier than that 

 of any other aster. She is the one aster that irresistibly de- 

 mands separation and classification. Of the others there is 

 little obvious distinction; the botanists may note the heart- 

 leaved, arrow-leaved, prenanthoides, and dozens of others, but 

 to the man in the fields they are all mere asters. The New 

 England monarch is strikingly different ; so different, in fact, 

 that it is almost difficult to class her as an aster at all. 



Unadvisedly at times Novae Angliac consents to grow by 

 the roadsides. She is not frequently foolish enough thus to 

 display her allurements. It is almost a certainty that her blos- 

 soms will be plucked in armfuls wherever they are seen for she 

 is not only the queen of the autumn but a regal personage 

 among all the flowers of the year. With wisdom, therefore, 

 she usually seeks tTie hidden brook nooks, where she majesti- 

 cally rears herself higher than a man's height and displays her 

 splendor without fear of ravishment. While her smaller 

 cousins and courtiers range the roadside in dense masses, con- 

 fident that their lesser and excessively common charm will as- 

 sure their immunity. 



