BONESET COMMON THOROUGHWORT AGUEWEED INDIAN SAGE

(Eupatorium perfoliatum) Thistle family



Flower-heads - Composite, the numerous, small, dull, white heads

of tubular florets only, crowded in a scaly involucre and borne

in spreading, flat-topped terminal cymes. Stem: Stout, tall,

branching above, hairy, leafy. Leaves: Opposite, often united at

their bases, or clasping, lance-shaped, saw-edged, wrinkled.

Preferred Habitat - Wet ground, low meadows, roadsides.

Flowering Season - July-September.

Distribution - From the Gulf States north to Nebraska, Manitoba,

and New Brunswick.



Frequently, in just such situations as its sister the Joe-Pye

weed selects (q.v.), and with similar intent, the boneset spreads

its soft, leaden-white bloom; but it will be noticed that the

butterflies, which love color, especially deep pinks and magenta,

let this plant alone, whereas beetles, that do not find the

butterfly's favorite, fragrant Joe-Pye weed at all to their

liking, prefer these dull, odorous flowers. Many flies, wasps,

and bees also, get generous entertainment in these tiny florets,

where they feast with the minimum loss of time, each head in a

cluster containing, as it does, from ten to sixteen restaurants.

An ant crawling up the stem is usually discouraged by its hairs

long before reaching the sweets. Sometimes the stem appears to

run through the center of one large leaf that is kinky in the

middle and taper-pointed at both ends, rather than between a pair

of leaves.



An old-fashioned illness known as break-bone fever - doubtless

paralleled to-day by the grippe - once had its terrors for a

patient increased a hundredfold by the certainty he felt of

taking nauseous doses of boneset tea, administered by zealous old

women outside the "regular practice." Children who had to have

their noses held before they would - or, indeed, could - swallow

the decoction, cheerfully munched boneset taffy instead.



The bright white, wide-spread inflorescence of the WHITE

SNAKEROOT, WHITE or INDIAN SANICLE, or DEERWORT BONESET (E.

ageratoides) is displayed from July to November in the hope of

getting relief from the fiercest competition for the visits of

butterflies, honey and other small bees, wasps, and flies. From

July to September the vast army of composites appear in such

hopeless predominance that prolonged bloom on the part of any of

their number is surely an advantage. In the rich, moist woods, or

by shady roadsides, where it prefers to dwell, the white sanicle

makes a fine show. Above its fringy bloom how often one sees the

exquisite little lavender-blue butterflies (Lycaena

pseudargiolus) pausing an instant to drain the tiny cups of

nectar, and usually transferring pollen from the protruding

styles (q.v.) as they flit to another cluster.



The opposite, petioled leaves, broadly oval at the base,

taper-pointed, coarsely toothed, three-nerved, and veiny, are

thin and easily skeletonized by the insects that enjoy the leaves

of all this clan of plants. From one to four feet high, the White

Snakeroot grows in the United States and Canada as far west as

Nebraska.



Closely allied to the eupatoriums, and with similar

inflorescence, is the CLIMBING BONESET or HEMPWEED (Willughbaeaa

scandens; Mikania scandens of Gray.) Straggling over bushes in

swamps, by the brookside thicket, or in moist, shady roadsides,

the vine reveals its kinship to the boneset instantly it comes

into bloom in midsummer, although its flower clusters are

occasionally pinkish. The opposite, petioled leaves are quite

different from the boneset's, however, being heart-shaped at the

base, and taper-pointed, somewhat triangular, two to four inches

long, and one or two inches wide. From Massachusetts and the

Middle States even to South America and the West Indies is its

range.



WHITE ASTERS or STARWORTS

(Aster = a star) Thistle family



In dry, open woodlands, thickets, and roadsides, from August to

October, we find the dainty WHITE WOOD ASTER (A. divaricatus; A.

corymbosus of Gray) its brittle zig-zag stem two feet high or

less, branching at the top, and repeatedly forked where loose

clusters of flower-heads spread in a broad, rather flat corymb.

Only a few white rays - usually from six to nine - surround the

yellow disk, whose forets soon turn brown. Range from Canada

southward to Tennessee.



First to bloom among the white species, beginning in July, is the

UPLAND WHITE ASTER (A. ptarmicoides), which elects to grow in the

rocky or dry soil of high ground in the northern United States

westward to Colorado. The leaves, which resemble grayish-green

shining grass-blades, arranged alternately up the rigid stem, and

diminishing in size near the top until they become mere bracts

among the flowers, enable us to name the plant. The heads, in a

branching cluster, are not numerous; each measures barely an inch

across its ten to twenty snow-white rays; the center is of a pale

yellow-green, turning a light brown in maturity.



The TALL WHITE or PANICLED ASTER (A. paniculatus), in bloom from

August to October in different parts of its wide range, attracts

great numbers of beetles, which do it more harm than good; but

many more butterflies (some of whose caterpillars feed on aster

foliage as a staple), quantities of flies, some moths, swarms of

bees, wasps, and miscellaneous winged visitors. Professor

Robertson found several thousand callers, representing

ninety-eight distinct species, on this one aster during four

October days. Such popularity as the asters have attained finds

its just reward in the triumphant progress of the lovely tribe

(q.v.). For the amateur to name each member of such a horde is

quite hopeless. In branching, raceme-like clusters, from August

to October, this aster displays its numerous flower-heads, less

than an inch across, each with a green cup formed of four or five

series of overlapping bracts, and many white rays, occasionally

violet tipped. The smooth stem, which rises from two to eight

feet above moist soil, is plentifully set with alternate,

pointed-tipped, lance-shaped leaves, tapering to a sessile or

partly clasping base, and sparingly saw-edged. Its range is from

Montana east to Virginia, south to Louisiana, north to Ontario

and New England.



The bushy little WHITE HEATH ASTER (A. ericoides) every one must

know, possibly, as MICHAELMAS DAISY, FAREWELL SUMMER, WHITE

ROSEMARY, or FROSTWEED; for none is commoner in dry soil,

throughout the eastern United States at least. Its smooth, much

branched stem rarely reaches three feet in height, usually it is

not over a foot tall, and its very numerous flower-heads, white

or pink tinged, barely half an inch across, appear in such

profusion from September even to December as to transform it into

a feathery mass of bloom.



Growing like branching wands of golden rod, the DENSE-FLOWERED,

WHITE-WREATHED, or STARRY ASTER (A. multiflorus) bears its minute

flower-heads crowded close along the branches, where many small,

stiff leaves, like miniature pine needles, follow them. Each

flower measures only about a quarter of an inch across. From

Maine to Georgia and Texas westward to Arizona and British

Columbia the common bushy plant lifts its rather erect, curving,

feathery branches perhaps only a foot, sometimes above a man's

head, from August till November, in such dry, open, sterile

ground as the white heath aster also chooses.



No one not a latter-day, structural botanist could see why the

TALL, FLAT-TOP WHITE ASTER (Doellingeria umbella) is now an

outcast from the aster tribe into a separate genus. This common

species of moist soil and swamps has its numerous small heads

(containing ten to fifteen rays each) arranged in large,

terminal, compound clusters (corymbs). The stem, which rises from

two to eight feet, has its long-tapering, alternate leaves, hairy

on the veins beneath and rough margined.



Late in the fall you may hear the rich tone of a Bombilius, one

of the commonest flies seen about flowers, as he darts rapidly

among the white asters. Unless you have been initiated, you may

mistake this fly for a bee. He sings a very similar song and

wears a similar dress; but he is not a very good imitation, after

all, and a little familiarity with him will give you courage to

catch him in your hand if you are quick enough, for he is

incapable of stinging or biting: he can merely make a noise out

of all proportion to his size. He is simply living from hour to

hour, and lays up no store for the winter, enjoying more or less

security from his resemblance to the industrious and dangerous

insect which he imitates.