208 
In the Synoptical Flora Bigelow’s variety alone is retained and 
Pursh’s humilis restored to specific rank, but with its compass so 
enlarged as to embrace a number of diverse and ambiguous forms, 
amongst which are some that cannot be distinguished from Euro- 
pean specimens of S. Virgaurea on the one hand, and are clearly 
separated, on the other, from S. humilis by their more robust 
habit, broader leaves and sharp-pointed involucral scales. 
A recent study of these perplexing goldenrods in the herbaria 
of Columbia College, Lafayette College and the Philadelphia 
Academy of Natural Sciences, and especially in the large collec- 
tions made during the last two or three years by Messrs. Rand 
and Redfield on Mount Desert Island, Maine, has led me to dis- 
pose of them as follows: 
Solidago Virgaurea, ..—In his description of the type of the 
species De Candolle (Prod. v. 3 38) writes: “ mire varians, sed 
veris. in plures species non divellenda et imo varietatibus vix inter 
sé satis dwersis conflata” —words that well express its behavior 
also on this side of the Atlantic. 
Specimens collected at the Willey House, Notch of the White 
Mountains, N. H., by Oakes, Pringle, Edwin Faxon and others, 
and on Willoughby Mountain, Vt., by Rusby, tally with forms 
brought from the Isle of Wight and Sunningdale, England, by Dr. 
and Mrs. Britton, whilst others collected by Dr. Morong in the 
mountains of New Hampshire, and on Mt. Desert Island by Rand 
and Redfield, are very like the varieties angustifolia, Gaud. and 
ericetorum, DC. of the Old World, and in their foliage approach 
typical S. humilis of the New. (Plate CLIITI.) 
Besides those already recognized, I venture to characterize ee 
several more varieties, peculiar to our flora. nie. 
Solidago Virgaurea, L., var. RaNDU, n. var. More or less” 
glutinous ; stems stout, erect, 1-2 ft. high, often. dark purple, 
puberulent, or sometimes glabrate below; radical and lower leaves 
obovate or oblanceolate, acute, serrate, cauline lanceolate or 
elliptical-lanceolate, sparingly serrate or entire, glabrous; inflor- — 
escence an ample branched panicle or loose virgate thyrse ; heads 
3 lines or more long; outer scales of the involucre mostly ovate or 
lance-ovate and bluntish, sometimes almost linear and acute, inner 
ones oblong-linear, yellowish, with scarious margins and acute or 
