TRE MICHAELMAS DAISY 
225 
mer wreath, and smiles upon a garden left almost desolate. 
More than a hundred species of Michaelmas-daisy are 
cultivated in England ; and some of them may be found 
during the latter part of the year in almost every garden, 
growing sometimes as tall as shrubs, and covered with 
blossoms, which are called stars (aster), from their nume- 
rous rays. Varying from a pale delicate lilac to a dark 
purplish colour, they are generally too sombre, or too pale, 
to be very ornamental ; yet they are clad in a proper dress 
for the Est flower of the season, and may seem to wear 
a slight mourning for their departed companions. When 
ail flowers save themselves are gone, and the summer birds 
have winged their way afar, and the bright butterfly is 
bright no longer, and the brittle brown lea.ves are crushed 
by the footstep, then this large family of plants is a wel- 
come acquisition to the garden-bed. 
Upwards of two-thirds of their number have been intro- 
duced into England from different parts of North America, 
where tliey grow so abundantly among trees that the aster 
of the wood '' is as familiar to the schoolboy as to the 
poet; or their sm.all stars, contrasting with the immense 
rayed blossom of the yellow sunflower, adorn some of the 
vast prairies of that country. They are found too on the 
muddy shores of rivers, and scattered about upon dry and 
sunny places. Some species are brought from the Cape 
of Good Hope, where they are numerous on low, swampy 
grounds or about the pasture-lands, A few species are 
derived from China, and others from the south of Europe. 
There is so great a similarity in ail the kinds of Michael- 
mas-daisy that the attempt to particularise any number of 
them would be useless in any but a botanical work. The 
American large-leaved daisy (Aster macrophyllus), which 
blooms from July to the end of September, and the red- 
stalked daisy (Aster puniceus), which is in blossom about 
the same time, are among the most ornamental of the 
Michaelmas-daisy. 
One pretty little well-known plant, which is quite co- 
vered with a great number of chocolate-coloured flowers, 
the many-flowered aster (Aster multiflorus), is among the 
latest blooming of all the species, and has received the 
appropriate and poetical name of Farewell summer. It is 
very generally called by this familiar name ; and it is often 
