(A) Heath Aster (Aster ericoides) is a common 
white aster from Me. to Minn, and southwards. The 
plant grows 1 to 3 feet tall and has many branches, 
each having simple, many-flowered stems racemed along 
their outer ends. All the stems, even the flower pedun¬ 
cles, are set with tiny, heath-like, linear leaves. In 
our illustration, the apparently different size between 
the flowers of this and the last species is because the 
scale is different. 
(B) Many-flowered Aster (Aster multiflorus) has, 
as its name would lead one to think, very many flowers, 
but they are small, averaging less, than y 2 inch across. 
In fact most of the white-flowered species do have 
smaller flowers than the blue ones, but what they lack 
in size they more than make up in numbers. The stem 
is slender but very branching, making a bush-like plant. 
Each branch is terminated by short, many-flowered ra¬ 
cemes. The leaves are tiny, light green and linear, 
smooth-edged but rough to the touch, crowded along the 
branches to their tips. This is a common species from 
Mass, to Minn, and southwards, growing in dry places 
everywhere and blooming from Sept, to Nov. 
185 
Iz&SSSUtaHB 
