209 
COMPOSITE. (COMPOSITE FAMILY.) 
* Heads in close axillary clusters or short clustered racemes: leaves 
feather-veined. (Rays 3-6.) 
2. S. bicolor, L. (White-raved Golden-rod.) Hoary or 
grayish icith soft hairs ; stem mostly simple ; leaves oblong or ellipti¬ 
cal lanceolate, acute at both ends, or the lower oval and tapering into 
a petiole, slightly serrate ; clusters or short racemes from the axils of 
the upper leaves , forming an interrupted spike or crowded panicle ; 
rays smallj cream-color or nearly white. — Var. concolor has the rays 
yellow. — Dry copses and banks, common, the var. in Pennsylvania 
and westward. 
3. S. latffdlia, L. (Broad-leaved Golden-rod.) Smooth 
or nearly so, stem angled , zigzag , simple or paniculate-branclied , 
leaves broadly ovate or oval , very strongly and sharply serrate , conspic¬ 
uously pointed at both ends ; heads in very short axillary sessile clus¬ 
ters, or somewhat prolonged at the end of the branches. Moist shad¬ 
ed banks, in rich soil, common, especially northward. Stem 1°- 3 
high, slender. Leaves thin, 3' -6 / long. 
4. S. csesia, L. (Blue-stemmed Golden-rod.) Smooth; stem 
terete , mostly glaucous , at length much branched and diffuse; leaves 
lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, serrate, pointed, sessile; heads in very 
short axillary clusters, or somewhat racemose panicled on the branch¬ 
es._Moist rich woodlands, common. Heads rather smaller than in 
No. 3. 
* * Racemes terminal , erect , either somewhat simple and wand-like , or 
compound and panicled , not one sided : leaves feather-veined. (Aot 
maritime.) 
Heads small: leaves nearly entire , except the lower. 
5. S. Virgata, Michx. (Wand-stemmed Golden-rod.) Very 
smooth throughout; stem very strict and simple , slender, beset with 
small and entire appressed lanceolate-oblong leaves, which are gradu¬ 
ally reduced upwards to mere bracts; the lowest oblong-spatulate, all 
thickish and smooth; heads crowded in a very narrow compound 
spicate raceme; rays 5-7. —Damp pine barrens, New Jersey and 
southward, 2° - 4° high. 
6. S. pilberula, Nutt. (Many-flowered Golden-rod.) 
Stem and panicle very minutely hoary; stem-leaves lanceolate , acute , ta¬ 
pering to the base; the lower wedge-lanceolate and sparingly toothed; 
heads very numerous, crowded in compact erect-spreading s ort ra 
cemes, forming a prolonged and dense narrow or pyramidal panicle; 
scales of the involucre linear-awl-shaped , appressed ; rays about U. 
Sandy soil, Maine to N. Jersey and southward near the coast. — 1 iant 
l°-y high, simple or branched; the leaves 21-31 long, green and 
nearly smooth. 
7. S. stricta, Ait. (Willow-leaved Golden-rod.) Very 
smooth throughout; stem simple, strict; leaves lanceolate, pointe , ie 
18 * 
