44 Addisonia 



Among our hundred odd kinds of goldenrods the species here 

 illustrated is wholly distinctive. It falls within a group, which 

 includes only two or three other species, characterized chiefly by 

 the spreading or recurved green tips of the bracts of the involucre; 

 but it is quite easily distinguishable from its near relatives. 



This plant was detected by Muhlenberg in Lancaster County, 

 Pennsylvania, in the early part of the past century, and was first 

 mentioned by him in his "Catalogus plantarum Americae septen- 

 trionalis" in 1813. It is such a clear-cut species that only once was 

 there any confusion concerning it so that it w^as named a second 

 time. 



The geographic range of this goldenrod extends from New Bruns- 

 wick and Ontario southward to Georgia, in the Piedmont and 

 mountain regions. It has not been found in the Coastal Plain. 

 The altitudinal distribution extends from near sea-level to several 

 thousand feet in the Alleghenies. 



Its favorite habitat is the steep or at least sloping rocky banks 

 of streams, where at the height of its flowering season it quite 

 eclipses all its associates. It is an erect plant with a strict in- 

 florescence; but does not suggest stiffness in habit. Its large con- 

 spicuously clean deep-green leaves, which are usually wholly free 

 from the fungous diseases so common on the foliage of many kinds 

 of goldenrod, and its erect narrow plumes of bright-yellow flowers 

 are particularly attractive to the eye. 



The specimens from which the accompanying illustration was 

 made were collected near the southern end of Lake Oscawana, 

 Putnam County, New York, in open woods on a rocky hillside. 



John K. Smali<. 



Explanation OF Plate. Fig. 1. — Inflorescence. Fig. 2. — Flowering head, X 

 2. Fig. 3. — Lower leaf. 



