200 COMPOSITtE. Solidago. 



however, who unite the two species very properly adopt the name of S-. 

 flexicaulis. 



9. S. Curtisii : stem tall, very strict and simple, striate-angled, nearly 

 glabrous ; leaves elongated-lanceolate, smooth and mostly glabrous, finely 

 and sharply serrate above the middle, gradually tapering to the base, sessile* 

 sharply acuminate ; heads in dense and sessile axillary clusters, all many 

 limes shorter than the leaves; involucre minutely pubescent; the exterior 

 scales short (few), the others linear, rather obtuse; rays and disk-flowers 

 each 4-6 ; achenia 7iiinutely pubescent. 



(3.? monticola: leaves sparingly appressed-serrate ; the upper scarcely 

 longer than the subsessile glomerate clusters, the uppermost reduced to- 

 bracts; scales of the about "l5-flowered involucre narrowly-linear, acute; 

 achenia glabrous. 



Mountains of North Carolina (/3. Yellow Mountain), Mr. M. A. Curtis!' 

 &c. Aug.-Sept. — Stem virgate, 3-5 feet high, rather stout, leafy to the- 

 summit (where it is somewhat pubescent), grooved and striate-angled, not 

 glaucous. Leaves rather equal throughout, membranaceous, 5-6 inches 

 long, half an inch to an inch wide, irregularly and sharply serrate, gradually 

 (the upper slightly, the lower ones conspicuously) tapering to the sessile base. 

 Peduncles and pedicels very short, pubescent. Heads as large as in S. 

 CEesia; the scales of the involucre narrower, &c. — We have only an imper- 

 fect specimen of var. (i. 1 which appears to be a smaller plant, with shorter 

 leaves; the glomerate clusters ajiproximate, and near the summit forming a 

 strict interrupted spike ; the heads rather smaller, but the flowers more 

 numerous. 



10. S. ambigua (Ait.) : stem somewhat flexuous, glabrous, angled", 

 branching; leaves oblong-lanceolate, densely serrate, slightly hairy beneath ; 

 racemes erect ; rays elongated [scales of the involucre lanceolate, acute ; 

 achenia canescently hairy]. Ail. ! Kav. {ed. 1)3. p. 217 ; Smith, in Rees, 

 cycl.; DC. inodr. 5. p. 336.? (The additions to the character derived from 

 the specimen in herh. Banks.) 



(3. ? lancifolia : leaves elongated lanceolate, attenuate-acuminate ; ra- 

 cemes pedunculate, somewhat compound or paniculate, numerous, all but 

 the lowermost longer than the leaves, forming an elongated panicle ; rays 

 rather small. 



North America ? described from specimens of unknown origin, cultivated 

 in 1759 by Miller, and in the Kew Garden. Smith supposes that it may be 

 a variety of S. lalifolia ; " from which it differs in its somewhat narrower 

 leaves, and much greater length of the upper clusters of flowers, which com- 

 bine to form a close panicle." The figure he cites from Plukenet doubtless 

 belongs to S. latifolia ; and the plant cultivated as S. ambigua in the Berlin 

 Garden, and some others, is probably nothing but a state of that species. 

 But the original plant must be diflerent, as the scales of the (perhaps 20- 

 flowered) involucre are lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, acute, and more imbri- 

 cated. If really of American origin, the plant we have doubtfully subjoined 

 is probably not specifically distinct from it. — The latter was collected on the 

 Yellow Mountain in North Carolina by Mr. M. A. Curtis. The angular 

 stem is apparently simple and 3 feet in length (the base is vv^anting in the 

 specimen) ; the flower-bearing portion a foot long, somewhat pubescent. The 

 leaves, instead of elliptical-lanceolate and abruptly narrowed into a short 

 winged petiole, as in the original S. ambigua (like a narrow-leaved var. of 

 S. latifolia), are elongated lanceolate, tapering gradually from near the mid- 

 dle to the base, 4 to 5 inches long, less than an inch in width, thin, smooth and 

 glabrous, or with a few scattered hairs, sharply and rather finely serrate, ex- 

 cept the slender acuminate apex and near the base. Racemes 20 or more, 

 approximate, erect or somewhat spreading, more or less compound, naked at 



