Solidago. 



COMPOSITE. 153 



a. Rays from none to 3: leaves clasping! 

 S. amplexicaulis, Tore. & Gray. Minutely soft-pubescent or glabrate : stem slender, 

 1 to 3 feet high, with spreading branches : leaves ovate, acute or acuminate, acutely serrate, 

 rather scabrous above and soft-pubescent beneath ; the upper slightly narrowed above the 

 dilated auriculate-claspiug base ; lower cauliue with longer contracted portion ; lowest and 

 radical wiug-petioled below the truncate or subcordate ba.se of the lamina (this about 2 inches 

 long) : racemiform clusters of the thyrsus slender, secuud, ofteu simple : pappus shorter than 

 the disk-corolla. — Fl. ii. 218 (not Martens, which is S. RiddeUii) ; Chapm. Fl. 21.3. —Open 

 dry woods, Florida to Louisiana, Leacenworth , Chapman, Ritgel, distributed by Shuttleworth 

 as (S. auriculala. Makes the nearest approach to Brack ijchceta. 



h. Rays 4 to G or rarely more, small, and disk-flowers little more numerous: leaves sessile by a 

 narrow base, pinnately veiny : pubescence of spreading hairs, or hardly any. 



S. rugosa, Mill. Stem hirsute or pubescent with spreading hairs, low or moderately tall 

 (1 to 6 feet high), mostly slender, very leafy to the top : leaves thin and soft, or in dry open 

 ground becoming thicker and firmer, from oval-ovate to oblong-lanceolate (1 to 4 inches 

 loug), mostly acute or acuminate, sometimes obtuse, usually hirsute on the veins and veinlets 

 beneath ; these conspicuous and often rugose-reticulated, sometimes scabrous above : in- 

 florescence when well developed recurved-spreading, but sometimes erect: bracts of the 

 involucre linear. — Diet. ed. 8; Willd. Spec. iii. 2058; Ait. Kew. ed. 2, v. 6G ; Gray, Proc. 

 Am. Acad. xvii. 194. Virga-aurea sp.. Dill. Elth. 406-411 , t. 304, 305, 308, appended in L. Spec. 

 878 to S. ultissimu, but not referred to it. 6\ altissima & S. aspera, Ait. Kew. iii. 212 ; Willd. 

 1. c. 5. scabra, Muhl. in Willd. 1. c. 6'. villosn, Pursh, Fl. ii. 537. S. J.uiuilis, Desf. Cat. 

 ed. 3, 402 ; DC. 1. c, a low form, commonly with the racemiform clusters erect, or hardly 

 spreading and secund. S. asperula, Desf. Cat. 1. c. 403 ? S. hirta, Willd. Enum. 891. 5. ri- 

 gidulu, Bosc, in hort. Paris 1 aS. asperala, Soland. mss., and so of Pursh as to herb. Banks. 

 S. altissima, Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 216 (incl. altissima, pilosa, recurvata, Virgininna, Mill. 

 Diet.), not L. — Moist or dry ground, Newfoundland and Labrador to Texas; very common 

 eastward in the Atlantic States. Polymorphous, not readily sorted into definable varieties ; 

 in shade thin-leaved ; in open and dry soil has small and broader, firmer, more scabrous, and 

 rugose-reticulated leaves. 8. rugosa. Mill., is the best of the old names to take up. 



S. ulmifolia, Muhl. Resembles the thinner-leaved and least pubescent forms of the pre- 

 ceding (into which it appears to pass), but with stem smooth and glabrous, except perhaps 

 the summit : leaves bright green, nearly smooth and glabrous, or pube-scent, membranaceous, 

 acute or acuminate at both ends, usually coarsely serrate, the larger veins con.spicuous but 

 veinlets inconspicuous : thyrsus more naked : bracts of the involucre of firmer texture and 

 more obtuse. — Willd. Spec. iii. 2060; Darlingt. Fl. Cest. 457; Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 217. 

 5. latn-ijiora, Ait. Kew. iii. 211, not L. — Moist woodlands and copses, Maine to Iowa, Arkan- 

 sas, and Texas. S. muhiflora, Desf. (in Poir. Suppl. v. 462) Cat. 1. c. 402, DC. Prodr. v. 336, 

 appears to be a state of this, altered by cultivation. 



Var. microph^y'lla. A reduced and rather rigid form ; with lower leaves 2 inches 

 long ; upper reduced to half an inch, obtuse, obscurely serrate. — Texas, Lindheimer, 

 Wright. 



= z= z^ z^ Leaves usually of firm texture and inconspicuous reticulation, occasionally thin and 

 membranaceous or more veiny, not scabrous above, commonly glabrous as also the stems: 

 bracts (if the involuci'e from broadly linear to narrowly oblong, obtuse. 



a. Stem equably and very leafy up to or into the pyramidal compound thyrsus: leaves compara- 

 tively slmrt and broad, even the lower not much narrowed downward, the secondary veins 

 ofteu manifest. 



S. Elliottii, Torr. & Gr.\y. Smooth and glabrous throughout, or the thyrsus somewhat 

 pubescent : stem tall, rigid : leaves from ovate-oblong to oblong-lanceolate, apiculate-acumi- 

 nate or acute, minutely and sjjarsely serrate with appressed teeth, scabrous ou the margin, 

 mostly closely sessile by a broadish base (1 to 4 inches long) : heads (3 lines long) crowded 

 on the secund and spreading or sometimes ascending and straight racemiform or spiciform 

 branches of the pyramidal panicle : bracts of the involucre rather broadly linear : rays 8 to 

 12, short: akenes pubescent. — Fl. ii. 218, and S. eliiplica of the same, as to the plant of 

 New York. .S. elli/itica ? Ell. Sk. ii. 376. S. elongata, Hort. Par. 1832. —Moist ground uear 

 the coast, Massachusetts to New York and through the low country south to Georgia. 



