SoLiDAGO. COMPOSITE. 21J 



Open situations, on shelving rocks towards the western declivity of the 

 Rocky Mountains [about lat. 'il°], Nuttall! — Plant about a span high, iv 

 clusters from the same root. Leaves (persistent?) with somewhat scabrous 

 margins, slightly veiny between the ribs. Scales of the involucre with sca- 

 rious margins, obscurely mucronate. 



* * * * Natives of brackish siramps: racemes erect or spreading, paniculate: leaves 

 thickish or fleshy, very srnooth and entire, obscurely veiny, often somewhat iriplinerved . 

 — Maritimae. 



34. )S. Mexicana (Linn.) : stem oblique, glabrous ; leaves lanceolate, 

 somewhat fleshy, very entire, smooth throughout; racemes paniculate, erect ; 

 peduncles squamose, glabrous; rays elongated. Ait. — Linn.! liort. Cliff, p. 

 409, Is; spec. 2. p. 879; Ait..' Kew. {ecL I) 3. p. 215; excl. syn. Tourn. 

 Pluk. &f Dodart., fide Swartz, ohs. p. 306 ; H. B. Sf K. ! nov. gen. Sf' spec. 



4. p. 104. S. limonifolia, Pcrs. syn. 2. p. 449, at least as to the character. 

 Described from specimens introduced into European gardens more than 



two hundred years ago, at first of reputed Mexican origin ; but afterwards 

 supposed to be a native of this country and not of Mexico; whence Persoon 

 changed the name, and succeeding botanists have partially confounded it 

 with the following species. It was most probably derived either from Mexico 

 or the West Indies; since we have seen no native specimens of the United 

 States which accord with the Linnsan plant, while the species of Humboldt 

 does so : it is moreover given as a West Indian species by Swartz, who, by 

 excluding the synonyms adduced by Linnfeus, appears to have been aware 

 that his plant was distinct from the more northern one ; and in the Hortus 

 Kewensis (where the plant is well characterized), a reference is made to the 

 manuscripts of Sir Hans Sloane. — The heads are in small corymbose pani- 

 cles, crowded at the summit of the stem, and in the axils of the obtuse upper 

 leaves ; the peduncles leafy ; the pedicels with numerous subulate bracts, 

 passing into the scales of the involucre, which are more pointed than in 



5. sempervirens. It should probably be excluded from the flora of extra- 

 tropical North America ; unless, indeed, the variety of S. limonifolia men- 

 tioned by Nuttall {trans. Amer. phil. soc. {n. ser.) 7. p. 328), as a native of 

 the Californian coast, near St. Barbara, should be found to belong to this 

 species. 



35. S. sempervirens (Linn.) : stem erect, glabrous; leaves fleshy, lanceo- 

 late, entire, acute, sessile, slightly clasping, obscurely triplinerved ; the radi- 

 cal lanceolate-oblong, on elongated petioles ; racemes paniculate (simple or 

 compound), more or less secund and spreading; peduncles pubescent or 

 nearly glabrous. — Linn. ! spec. 2. p. 878 ; Pursli, fl. 2. p. 538 ; Ell. ! sk. 

 2. p. 37'^9 ; DC. ! prodr. 5. p. 335. S. Noveboracensis & S. carnosa. Mill, 

 diet. Virga-Aurea seu Solidago procerior, &c. Pluk. aim. t. 235, /. 5 .'' 



p. leaves thick and fleshy ; racemes short, in a contracted panicle, more 

 or less secund or turned to one side. — Virga-Aurea limoniifolio, &c. Tourn. 

 inst. p. 404 ? Pluk. aim. t. 235, /. 2? Solidago tevigata, Ait. ! Keiv. {ed. 

 1) 3. p. 215; Pursh, fl. 2. p. 541 ; DC. I. c. S. Umonifolia, Pers.? and 

 of authors. 



y. leaves linear-lanceolate, tapering to each end, very acute, thickish ; 

 racemes erect, in a pyramidal rather strict panicle. — S. sempervirens, 

 Ait. ! I. c. 



6. leaves scarcely, or not at all fleshy, elongated lanceolate, tapering to 

 each end, very acute ; racemes short, mostly secund, in a close erect or some- 

 what decurved panicle. — S. viminea. Ait.! Keiv. I. c. p. 2J5. S. integer- 

 rima, Mill, diet., ex Ait. 



In salt or brackish marshes along the coast of the United States ! to Mas- 

 sachusetts! and Canada. Sept.-Oct. — Stem stout, 3-8 feet high. Margin 



