Smooth Aster (Aster lævis) is a handsome species having a smooth, stout stem, from 2 to 4 feet high. The flowers are in lovely terminal clusters, each blossom measuring about an inch across; they are usually light violet-blue in color, although color is very variable with all the so-called blue asters; each disk is surrounded by 15 to 30 rays. The leaves are nearly smooth-edged, lanceolate, clasping the stem with a distinct heart-shaped base. The Smooth Aster is abundant from Me. to Minn. and southward, growing in dry soil and blooming in September and October.
New York Aster (Aster novi-belgii) is one of the very commonest of the “blue asters.” The stalk is slender, very branchy, and grows from 1 to 3 feet in height. The leaves are commonly narrowly lanceolate but are very variable; they slightly clasp the stem with their bases. The numerous flower-heads are a trifle more than an inch across, the yellowish centre being surrounded by 15 to 24 lilac or blue-violet rays. This species abounds from Newfoundland to Florida and perhaps west to the Miss. Valley. It blooms in September and October.
(A) Heart-leaved Aster (Aster cordifolius) is a common species, readily identified by the shape of its leaves that are, the lower ones especially, heart-shaped and on quite long, slender, ciliate petioles. The stalk is slender, branchy, and grows from 1 to 4 feet high. The flowers are numerous but comparatively small, about ⅝ inch across; they have brownish yellow centres and 10 to 20 lilac, or lighter colored rays. It is a very common species in thin woods and thickets, or along their edges. Found from N. B. to Minn. and southward, flowering in September and October.
(B) Panicled Aster (Aster paniculatus) is a very tall, branching, slender-stemmed species, commonly found in moist ground and on the borders of woods or copses. The smooth stalk attains heights of from 2 to 8 feet. At the ends of the branches are numerous flower-heads about the size of a nickel, loosely panicled. The leaves are long, lance-shaped, nearly smooth, obscurely, or not at all toothed, and dark green in color. This is one of the palest colored of the “blue asters,” the flowers are very light violet and often white.
(A) Heath Aster (Aster ericoides) is a common white Aster from Me. to Minn. and southward. 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 peduncles, 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 ½ 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 racemes. 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 southward, growing in dry places everywhere and blooming from September to November.
