OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 177 



2. Determination of the Species of Solidago. 



1. Species of Linnccus, as represented in the Linna'on Herbarium and from 



the earlier sources. 



S. SEMrERViRENS. An undeveloped specimen of the sea-side 

 species of Atlantic North America. All the synonyms cited in the 

 Species Plantarum apjjear to belong here; that of Plukenet has been 

 verified. 



S. Canadensis. Two slieets jiinned together : one is a minutely 

 pubescent form of the received species ; the other, from Kalm, belongs 

 to S. rugosa, Mill., viz. to the plant which has long passed for S. 

 altissima. The syn. Pluk. Aim. t. 236, fig. 1, which may have 

 suggested the specific name, is to be excluded. 



S. ALTISSIMA. The true original of the Linna^an species is the 

 " Virga aurea altissima serotina, panicula speciosa patula. Mart. Cent. 

 14, t. 14," i. e. Martyn's Hist. PI. 1728, fol., represented by an excel- 

 lent plate, clearly representing a large form of S. Canadensis, to which 

 Linnaeus declares it is very similar. He distinguishes it by " foliis 

 enerviis subintegerrimis ; " the last word was changed in the second 

 edition to " serratis." It is a form with thicker and more obscurely 

 triple-nerved leaves than the ordinary S. Canadensis. The specimens 

 in the herbarium are confounded, apparently from the first, also by 

 attempted rectifications by Smith. A sheet ticketed by Linnaeus 

 " altissima" is noted, apparently by Smith's hand, as " *S'. Canadensis," 

 but it i^robably is not. Another sheet holds specimens numbered 1, 



2, 3 : the first of these is a panicle of S. nemoralis, the second is a 

 branch of S. hicolor, the third belongs to aS*. odora. A specimen 

 ticketed " serotina " by Linnfcus, and by Smith " altissima," is the 

 species which has so long passed as S. altissima, viz. ^S". riigosa, Mill. 

 The Dillenian figures appended by Linnajus as ^' plantas vix genuinas " 

 belong to the latter species, as the plates themselves show, and the 

 originals in the Sherardian herbarium confirm. These have been 

 wrongly taken as the type of aS. altissima, which, however, must now 

 be reduced to a synonym of S. Canadensis, while the species of Dill. 

 Elth., in all three plates, may assume the old name of S. rugosa, Mill., 

 which is much more appropriate than altissima for a plant which 

 is seldom tall. The other Solidago, " Virga aurea Marilandica," &c., 

 of Martyn, t. 13, I cannot identify from the figure. It may be the 

 var. procera or var. scabra of Canadensis, but the heads seem much 

 too large. 



VOL. XVII. (n. S. IX.) 12 



