MOUNTAIN FLOWERS 289 



stems. It grows only from three to six inches high, and is 

 found on lofty summits at 8000 and 9000 feet. The flowers 

 resemble bright )'ellow daisies, and are rather ragged looking. 

 At times, as the traveller stands upon the crest of some 

 mountain top, where the earth seems very close to the sky of 

 perfect blue, the gamboge blossoms of the Aplopappiis^ cover- 

 ing the ground with a torrent of bloom, seem to surge across 

 the alpine plateaus in a succession of golden waves. 



CANADA GOLDEN-ROD 



Solidago Canadensis. Composite Family 



Stems: stout, little branched, puberulent. Leaves: alternate, lanceolate, 

 triple-nerved, acute at each end, the lower ones sharply serrate and peti- 

 oled, the upper ones smaller, entire, sessile. Flowers: heads numerous, 

 of both tubular and radiate flowers, on the spreading or recurving 

 branches of the large and dense panicles ; involucre campanulate, the 

 bracts linear, imbricated in several series ; rays in one series, pistillate ; 

 disk-flowers nearly all perfect ; corolla tubular, five-cleft. 



The Golden-rods, many species of which grow abundantly 

 in the mountain districts, are, together with the Asters, the 

 handsomest of the late autumn flowers. Retaining the rich 

 glow of the summer sun in their ripe yellow blossoms, they 

 brighten the slopes and border the trails with a reflected 

 glory. For the Golden-rod is at home in all kinds of places : 

 by the dusty wayside and in the deep green forests ; close to 

 the borders of the ice-born streams, and out in the open 

 meadows, where the rays of light at noontide shine strongest. 

 In each of these localities the tall wands, bearing their wealth 

 of golden florets, wave gently to and fro, and never can we 

 mistake the feathery plumes of the larger species, or the 

 straight woody stems of the smaller ones, which are so thickly 

 crowned by the tiny radiant flowers of this queen of Nature's 

 garden. 



It is a more difficult matter, however, to differentiate 

 between the many species of Golden-rod that grow at high 



