The leaf has a heart-shaped base, and pointed tip, a slightly notched or entire margin, and a coarse texture, the surface generally being rough above and also on the underside of the midrib; the upper leaves clasp the stalk, while the lower, and larger, leaves are set on short hairy stems. In color, a rather dull green. They are numerous all the way from foot to tip. The many flower-heads, are small, with 14 to 20 delicate, short, pale-lavender rays; the cups are smooth and shining, and are set on leafy foot-stems, in large loose clusters. Coming just as its purple and white sisters are departing, and as though desiring to atone for their cessation, this delightful late Aster fills the country roads and lanes with the generous abundance of its misty gray-lavender bloom. [Illustration: BRANCHING ASTER: A. cordifolius.] LOBELIA FAMILY. LOBELIACEÆ. *Spiked Lobelia.* _Lobelia spicata._ Found in pastures and waysides during July and August. The single, very erect stalk varies from 1 to 2 feet in height, and is very slender, grooved, and noticeably twisted; its fibre is fine, and near the foot it is hairy to the touch. In color green, with a trace of red at the leaf. The foot-leaves are large, and a wide oval in shape, and set on margined stems; the upper leaves are a long narrow, oval shape, diminishing in size to a mere line, and are set immediately upon the stalk; the margins are irregularly notched, they are downy to the touch, and light green, tending to yellow. Their arrangement is alternate. The small flower is 2-lipped, the lower lip being 3-parted with a pair of swellings at the throat of the tube, the upper lip divided by a cleft down the length of the tube; all parts of the corolla are sharp-pointed, and flaring from the 5-parted calyx; the texture is fine and smooth, and the color a pure pale lavender, faintly lined with dark, white near the throat, and pinkish in the tube, the green calyx being also tinted with pink. The flowers, on short foot-stems, are set alternately, and close, in a long, very pretty spike. There is something individual about the alert carriage of this plant, its whole gesture is erect and animated. It grows numerously in pastures, though in less close fellowship than its little brook sister. [Illustration: SPIKED LOBELIA: Lobelia spicata.] *Brook Lobelia.* _Lobelia Kalmii._ Found on moist ground in limestone soil, blossoming in July and August. The erect, minutely angular stem, is slender, smooth and polished, fine and at the same time strong in fibre; in color a light grass-green. The small, narrow and grass-like leaf is about an inch long; towards the root it broadens a little at the tip; color grass-green. The growth is alternate.