Part 9

(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.

(A) Small White Aster (_Aster vimineus_) is still another of the tiny, white-flowered Asters. It has a tall, branching stem from 2 to 5 feet high; the branches nearly all leave the main stalk in a horizontal position and the inflorescence is chiefly on one side of the flowering stems. It grows in moist soil from Me. to Minn. and southward.

(B) Starved Aster (_Aster lateriflorus_) is a much-branched, slightly hairy species, common in thickets and fields from N. S. to Ontario and southward. The leaves are lanceolate and taper to a point at each end. The ray florets are usually less in number than most of the other white species.

Daisy Fleabane (_Erigeron ramosus_) is a common aster-like species found blooming in fields from June until October. The stem is rough-hairy, and grows 1 or 2 feet tall. The small daisy-like flowers grow in a corymbed cluster at the top of the stem; they are about ½ inch across, have quite a broad disc of tubular, yellowish florets, and very numerous, narrow, ray florets; these rays range from 40 to 80 in number.

(A) _Aster umbellatus_ is a common species of white Aster found growing in moist woodland or thickets. It has smooth, leafy, branching stems from 2 to 6 feet tall.

The numerous flower-heads are in compound flat-topped corymbs; the centre, or disc florets, are greenish yellow and are surrounded by a few white rays, usually less than a dozen. It is a common species throughout the northern parts of the United States.

(B) Sharp-leaved Wood Aster (_Aster acuminatus_) is a low-growing woodland Aster growing from 1 to 3 feet in height. The leaves are quite large, sharply pointed, sharply toothed, and short stemmed. A few alternate along the lower portions of the stem and a number are so close together as to appear whorled about the stem, just below the flowers. The flowers are few in number, on slender pedicels. They have few white rays and a rather brownish centre; the rays are long, narrow, often wavy and give the flower a spread of from 1 to 1½ inches. It is quite a common species in cool rich woods from Labrador to Ontario and south to Pa. It blooms during August and September.

(A) Pearly Everlasting (_Anaphalis margaritacea_) is the largest-flowered and the prettiest of the everlastings.

The stems are simple, quite stout, white-wooly, leafy, and 6 to 30 inches in height. The leaves are long and narrow, have a smooth edge, are grayish green above and wooly below, and narrow into clasping bases; they are closely set around the stem from the base to the flower cluster.

The flowers are in flat-topped clusters; each head is composed of many pearly-white, dry, overlapping scales that surround brownish-yellow, tubular florets. Staminate and pistillate flowers grow on different plants. This Everlasting is very common on dry hillsides, in woods, or on recently cleared land. Its range extends from N. S. to Manitoba and southward to S. C. and Mo. It is in full bloom from July until September.

(B) Sweet Everlasting (_Gnaphalium polycephalum_) has a wooly stem and wavy, lanceolate, wooly leaves. The pearly flower-heads are oval in shape; they do not expand until after they have matured. It is common in pastures everywhere.

(B) Rosin-weed; Compass Plant (_Silphium laciniatum_) is a large, showy-flowered plant found on the western prairies. It has a stout, rough, bristly stem that attains heights of from 3 to 10 feet. The stem grows from a perennial root. The large leaves are pinnately divided, each division being linear and cut-lobed.

The flower-heads are very large, measuring from 2 to 4 inches across. They are sessile or exceedingly short stemmed, seated along the upper portion of the stout stem. They are disposed to present their edges north and south. Compass Plant is found on prairies from Mich. to North Dakota and southward; it blooms from July until September.

(A) Prairie Dock (_Silphium terbinthinaceum pinnatifidium_) is rather an attractive plant that also grows on prairies and the edges of copses. The smooth, slender stem ascends 3 to 10 feet high and bears a loose panicle of large, yellow-rayed flower-heads. The leaves mostly come from the root and lower part of the stem; they are slender-petioled and deeply pinnatifid. Found from O. to Minn. and southward.

Elecampane (_Inula Helenium_) (European) is a tall, stout, beautiful member of the composite family that comes to us from the Old World.

The stout, smooth, usually unbranched stalk grows from 2 to 6 feet in height and is leafy throughout. At the summit of the stem is a single (or sometimes two) large flower set on a peduncle from the angle of the upper leaf. A smaller, flat, bract-like leaf appears just below the flower involucre. The head measures 2 or 3 inches across and has a broad disc of tubular, yellow florets, these turning tan color as they age. The yellow rays are numerous, but very narrow, usually set at different angles and with some vacant places so that the flower has a rather disheveled appearance.

The upper leaves usually clasp the plant stem, while the lower ones are on petioles. They are broad, thick-textured, toothed and pointed; the large, whitish veins show very prominently; the upper surface of the leaf is rough, yellowish green, while the lower is lighter and wooly.

(A) Robin’s Plantain (_Erigeron pulchellus_) is one of the earliest members of the Composite Family to bloom. In fact, it is often known as the “Blue Spring Daisy,” a name which is very appropriate for it, much more so than the one it commonly bears. The very fuzzy, light green, juicy stalk attains heights of from 10 to 24 inches. Most of the leaves are in a dense rosette at the base of the stalk; they are spatulate in shape, indistinctly toothed and hairy throughout. From one to nine flowers, an inch, or slightly more, broad are grouped at the top of the stem. It is common everywhere, blooming in May and June.

(B) Purple Cone Flower (_Brauneria purpurea_) is a showy western species bearing a single, large flower-head with a conical centre of purple disc florets and surrounded by many large, notched, magenta rays. The stiff, hairy stem rises 2 to 3 feet high. The leaves, also stiff-hairy, alternate along it; the upper ones are toothless and seated on the stem, while the lower ones are sharply toothed; they are five-ribbed and deep green in color. Rich soil, N. Y. to Mich. and southward.

Black-eyed Susan; Yellow Daisy; Cone-flower (_Rudbeckia hirta_) is a beautiful, large-flowered, tough-stemmed species that is commonly found in dry fields and pastures throughout the East, although it is, by nativity, a western species.

The stem is hairy, rough, very tough, and grows from 1 to 3 feet in height. Single, large flowers are borne at the summit of each stem.

The involucre is composed of two rows of leaf-like bracts that spread as the flower opens, the outer ones extending almost as widely as the rays. The conical, dark purple centre is composed of long, tubular florets that ripen in successive circles about the cone, making a fringe of yellow pollen on its surface. The orange-yellow rays are neutral, with neither stamens nor pistils.

The leaves, scattered alternately along the stem, are stiff and hairy. The upper ones are lanceolate and seated on the stem, the lower ones are broader toward the tip, rather spatulate shaped.

Tall Cone-flower (_Rudbeckia laciniata_) is a tall, lanky member of this genus, with an entirely different temperament from that of the Black-eyed Susan. No hot, sandy, or dusty fields for this, but the cool depths of moist thickets. As usual with vegetation in moist, rich soil, its growth is luxuriant. The smooth, branching stem ascends to heights of 3 to 10 feet and is leafy throughout. Ordinarily, the plant does not grow more than 5 feet in height; those that exceed this height might be termed giants of the species. The lower leaves are very large, are on long petioles and are cleft into five or seven divisions; the lower and middle stem leaves are usually three-parted while the upper ones, or at least the ones nearest the flowers, are small and elliptical.

Several large flower-heads terminate the branches; they measure from 2 to 4 inches across. The central disc is, at first, hemispherical and green but finally becomes elongated and brownish. The rays number six to twelve and are bright yellow in color. This species blooms from July until September and is found from Me. to Manitoba and southward.

Ten-petalled Sunflower (_Helianthus decapetalous_). This is a slender-stemmed, graceful, showy-flowered Sunflower, common in damp woods and on the borders of thickets, from Me., Quebec, and Minn. southward. The branching stem grows from 2 to 5 feet tall; it is slightly hairy-rough on the upper portions but smooth below. The leaves are thin, rather rough-broad lance-shaped, short-stemmed and grow oppositely on the stem; they are all sharply saw-toothed. The showy flowers, growing on slender peduncles from the ends of the branches, are 2 to 3 inches across. Though often with ten rays, they just as frequently have any number from 8 to 15.

Common Sunflower (_Helianthus annuus_) is the common garden Sunflower that often has such enormous heads. The normal, wild plant is common from Minn. to Texas and westward. The flower-heads range from 3 to 6 inches in diameter; it is only the cultivated variety, produced from this, that has the mammoth heads we often see.

In its wild state the plant grows from 3 to 6 feet tall. Their period of bloom is from July until September.

Jerusalem Artichoke (_Helianthus tuberosus_) is, like the Common Sunflower, a valuable species, and one that is often cultivated because of its edible roots, these being tender and of good flavor; they are eaten raw or cooked. Their value as articles of food was first discovered by Indians and by them imparted to our early colonists. The name Jerusalem, in connection with this plant, is a corruption from the name applied to the species by Italians (Girasole Articocco), meaning sunflower artichoke.

It is a handsome plant, the stout, leafy, hairy stalk growing from 3 to 12 feet tall and being topped with several large showy flowers. The large, three-veined leaves are hairy and have toothed margins. They are chiefly set oppositely on the stem, although some of the upper ones may alternate. The several flower-heads are large, measuring up to 3 inches across. The central florets are greenish yellow and are surrounded by from 12 to 24 lone, golden-yellow rays.

This species is often also known as the Canada Potato and the Earth Apple. Its range extends from southern Canada southward nearly to the Gulf.

(A) Beggar-ticks; Stick-tight (_Bidens frondosa_) is a plant familiar, to their sorrow, to all who roam the woods and fields during fall. Who has not had the pleasant task of sitting down and, one by one, removing the little two-hooked, black seeds that hang so closely to clothing.

Beggar-ticks, in appearance, is an uninteresting weed common everywhere in moist ground or along roadsides. The stem is very branching and is from 1 to 8 feet tall. The leaves are compounded of three to five sharply toothed, lance-shaped leaflets. The flower-heads are composed of tubular brownish-yellow florets, sometimes with no surrounding rays and again with a few tiny ones.

(B) Larger Bur-marigold; Brook Sunflower (_Bidens lævis_) is a very attractive species while it is in flower, but later, after the little seeds have formed, it has the same disagreeable traits common to all the members of the genus. The flowers of this species are 1 to 2 in. across, having 8 or 10 large, yellow, neutral rays surrounding the dull-colored disc florets. The stem is slender and branching, the leaves lance-shaped and toothed. Common in swamps and along brooks.

(A) Common White Daisy; Ox-eye Daisy (_Chrysanthemum leucanthemum_) (European) is a naturalized, floral citizen. It is so common and has become so widespread that it is even better known than most of our common native flowers.

This Daisy needs no description. We have two very similar kinds differing in the shape of the leaves, one being more pinnatifid than the other. The one shown on the opposite page is the most common, a variety of _leucanthemum_ called _pinnatifidum_. The other variety has the ends of the leaves rounded and finely toothed but not cut or slashed.

(B) Feverfew (_Chrysanthemum parthenium_) (European) is found in some places in the East as an escape from gardens. The stem grows from 1 to 2 feet tall and is quite branching. The flowers are grouped in clusters; they are much smaller than those of the last species and have a comparatively broader disc of yellow florets. The leaves are broad, deeply pinnatifid, and each division further toothed or cut. It is locally naturalized from Mass. to N. J. and westward. It blooms from June until September, the same as does the last species.

(A) Yarrow; Milfoil (_Achillea millefolium_) is one of the most common of our wayside weeds.

The stem is stout, gray-green, usually simple, or forking near the top. The leaves, alternating along and clasping the stem, are soft and feathery—deeply and finely bipinnatifid.

The flowers grow in very compact, flat-topped clusters at the top of the stem. Each flower-head has a centre of short, tubular, yellowish florets that turn brown or grayish as they grow old; they are surrounded by from four to six round, white rays.

Yarrow is a very hardy plant; we may find it thriving beside roads where the dust has killed nearly ever other living thing. Its leaves have a strong, not unpleasant, aromatic odor.

(B) Mayweed; Chamomile (_Anthemis Cotula_) (European) is also a common weed found by the wayside in company with the last species. The stem is very branchy, 8 to 20 inches high. The leaves are very finely divided. The strong, unpleasant odor of the foliage will at once correct the impression that it may be a Daisy.

(A) Sneezeweed (_Helenium autumnale_) is a beautiful rather odd plant that brightens meadows and swamps during August and September. The stem is rather stout, smooth, and branching; it ascends from 2 to 6 feet. Alternating along the stem are numerous ovate, pointed, sharply toothed, bright green leaves.

It is the blossoms that attract our attention for, besides being very handsome, they are unusual in form. The hemispherical centre is composed of closely packed tubular florets and is surrounded by a number of broad, toothed, golden-yellow rays; the heads have an expanse of 1 to 2 inches. Both the tubular and the yellow pistillate rays are fertile.

(B) Tansy; Bitter Buttons (_Tanacetum vulgare_) (European) is abundant everywhere about houses and along roads, from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains.

The foliage is very bitter and is the foundation of many an old-fashioned remedy. The flowers grow in flat-topped clusters and are composed of round discs, or “buttons,” of tubular florets only. It is a species not to be mistaken; it has an appearance, an odor, and a taste of its own. It blooms from July until September.

(A) Golden Ragwort (_Senecio aureus_). In late March and early April, Ragwort shows simply a tuft of stemmed, heart-shaped leaves, resembling those of Violets. A little later a stem ascends from the perennial root; a slender, tough, angular, twisting stem that finally reaches heights of 1 to 3 feet. During May and June they carry at their summit a loose cluster of bright, orange-yellow flowers. Each flower is composed of but 8 to 12 narrow, orange-yellow rays, surrounding a central cluster of tubular florets of brownish orange.

The stem leaves are chiefly sessile, deeply cut or pinnatifid. Ragwort grows most abundantly and most luxuriantly in swamps or moist ground, but is also found in dry places or stony pastures. Its range extends from Newfoundland to Wisconsin and southward.

(B) Arnica (_Arnica mollis_). The slightly hairy stem grows from 1 to 2 feet tall. The basal leaves are long petioled but the stem ones are sessile and opposite, shallow-toothed. At the summit are one to nine flower-heads on slender peduncles. About the central disc are 10 to 14 yellow rays, each with three notches in their ends. Canada and the mountains of northern U. S.

Burdock (_Arctium minus_) (European) is a very common plant on waste ground, along roadsides and the edges of woods. The plant is often 4 feet or more high. The lower leaves are very large, often more than a foot in length, heart-shaped, deep green and finely veined above, grayish beneath because of the fine wool that covers the under surfaces. The upper leaves are smaller, more ovate in form, and less densely wooly on the undersides. The flower-heads grow in clusters at the ends of the branches. The involucre is almost spherical, composed of numerous bracts, each terminating in a sharp, hooked point. Tubular florets, only, are seated within this involucre; they are purple and white in color, and secrete an abundance of nectar on which account they are frequented by honey bees.

The present species adopts the policy of the Beggar-ticks, but instead of single seeds, it attaches the whole bur-like head by means of its numerous little hooks. They cling tenaciously to everything they touch; doubtless most of my readers recall massing these burs together to make castles, funny men, animals, etc.

Canada Thistle (_Cirsium arvense_) (European) is a small-flowered, perennial species that has strayed across the ocean and become a pernicious weed.

The stem is rather slender, branching, and grows from 1 to 3 feet in height. It grows from a perennial, creeping rootstalk, that is, as farmers have discovered, very difficult to eradicate from the soil. It grows in extensive colonies and, unless strenuous efforts are made to destroy them, they very soon take possession of a field to the exclusion of almost everything else.

The leaves, that grow alternately and closely together on the stem, are long, lance-shaped, deeply cut into sharply prickled lobes. Numerous flower-heads, about one inch across, terminate the branches. When in full bloom, the florets vary in color from rose-purple to white; the involucre is almost globular and covered with over-lapping bracts, each with a tiny, sharp, out-turned point.

All the thistles yield an abundance of nectar and are frequented by bees and butterflies.

Bull Thistle (_Cirsium lanceolatum_) is the thistle that we most often see in fields and pastures. It is one of the largest of the genus, its heads often measuring 3 inches across. The stem is stout and simple, and grows from 1 to 3 feet high; it is hairy and angular in section and grows from a biennial rootstalk.

The flower-heads are very large, 2 to 3½ inches across and usually solitary, although frequently two heads grow on the same stalk. The leaves are lance-shaped, green, clasping, rather hairy, pinnatifid and armed with short, stout prickles. Just below the flowers are several small bract-like leaves, also armed with sharp prickles. All this armor tends to discourage pilfering insects from crawling up the stem; should they persist and reach the large involucre, which is also armed, they will find that, in addition, it is slightly sticky, and presents an impenetrable barrier to their upward progress. This species is common from Me. to Del. and Pa. It blooms from July until September.

(A) Star Thistle (_Centaurea nigra, var. radiata_). The slender stein branches slightly and rises to heights of 1 to 2 feet, each branch bearing a solitary flower-head at the end. The flower-head has a round involucre of tawny, or dark brown, dry bracts; the florets are all tubular and rose-purple.

This species, which is introduced from Europe, grows in waste places and along roadsides from N. S. to Ontario and south to N. J. and Pa. It may be found in bloom from July until September.

(B) Chicory; Succory (_Cichorium intybus_) (European) has become thoroughly naturalized and is common in the eastern half of the United States, especially so near the coast.

The stem is stiff, tough, and angular in cross-section; it attains heights of from 1 to 3 feet. The leaves are long-lanceolate, dark gray-green and coarsely toothed. The flowers are very beautiful—a violet-blue, approaching a pure blue in color. There are at least two ranks of strap-shaped rays, the inner ones much shorter, all toothed at the ends. Succory blooms in dry situations from July until October.

(A) Fall Dandelion (_Leontodon autumnalis_) (European) is a small dandelion, naturalized from Europe and common in the Eastern States during fall, or from the latter part of July. The leaves, tufted at the base of the flower scape, are long and narrow and have blunt teeth. The flower scape is long and slender and usually forks near the summit, bearing two or three flower-heads, rarely only one; the scape attains heights of 7 to 18 inches. The flower stalk is not hollow like that of the common dandelion, but is solid. It grows in fields and along roadsides and is quite common from Newfoundland to Mich. and south to Pa.

(B) Dwarf Dandelion; Cynthia (_Krigia virginica_) is a tiny little plant as compared to the common dandelion. The leaves are all basal on rather long petioles; they are coarsely and sharply, or laciniately, toothed. Numerous unbranching, slender flower scapes rise from these tufts of basal leaves, each bearing at the summit a little golden-rayed flower resembling a dandelion.

Cynthia is a very common native species and is found blooming from April until July in dry fields, open wilds, or sandy soil, from southern Canada to the Gulf.