WHITE OR WHITISH FLOWERS 
GROUP XIX 
Leaves alternate, simple. Herbs. Flowers not in raceme or 
spike. Flowers composite. 
White Asters (Aster, a star). Composite family. Late 
summer, autumn. 
"Wild asters in the country lane, 
A cricket's lonely cry; 
A crimson rose with heart laid bare, 
Breathing her fevered sigh." 
— Agnes Lockhart Hughes. 
The common white wayside flower of autumn. The different 
species, mostly perennial, vary from one to eight feet in height. 
The flowers have yellow disks of tubular, perfect flowers, and 
spreading white pistillate rays; they vary in number and size 
from few and large, as in the Sharp-leaved White Aster (Aster 
acuminatus) to tiny and numerous, as in the Heath Aster (Aster 
ericoides). The Aster is distinguished from Daisy Fleabane by 
its broader rays and its generally smooth stem, besides the 
fact that it blossoms late in the season. 
Tall Flat-topped White Aster (Aster timbellatus) . Com- 
posite family. July to October. 
A tall leafy aster often noticeable from the road. It has a 
smooth stem, sometimes six feet high or over, and a large, flat 
cluster of flowers at the top. The flowers are one-half inch to 
nearly an inch broad; the rays, averaging a dozen, are apt to 
bend downward. The leaves, three to five inches long, are lance- 
shaped, long-pointed, not toothed, the upper without stalks. 
This aster is apt to grow in profusion at the edge of woods, in 
low ground. 
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