SOLIDAGO ODORA. 
Sweet scented Golden rod. 
PLATE XX. 
No part of vegetation in the United States is 
so conspicuous and gaudy in the autumnal months, 
and at the same time furnishes to the botanist so 
difficult a task of discrimination, as the multitu- 
dinous and Protean genera Solidago and Aster. 
Each of these genera contains many well defined 
species, sufficiently marked by their external 
characters, sensible qualities, habits and places of 
growth. But between them, is a great multitude 
of subspecies, liable to variation from external 
circumstances, changing their appearance with 
their places of growth, and running together by 
so many points of resemblance, that it is a labour 
yet remaining for botanists to separate those 
species which are in nature distinet, from those 
which are varieties only. 
