158 COMPOSITE. Solidago. 



= = Leaves obtuse oi- abruptly apiculate, or acutisb, of firm or coriaceous texture, upper ones 

 entire: pubescence all close, cinereous or canescent, or scabro-hispidulous ; lateral ribs com- 

 monly incomplete, often obscure or wanting: panicle mostly compact, naked: bracts of the 

 involucre broadish and obtuse, of firm texture: rays fewer and lai-ger, golden yellow. Tiie 

 species are confluent. 

 a. Cinereous to canescent with fine and soft or at length minutely scabrous pubescence: leaves firm 

 but seldom very rigid. 

 S. Californica, Nutt. Stem rather .stout, either low or tall, canescently puberulent or 

 pubescent : leave.s oblong or the upper oblong-lanceolate and the lower obovate, obtuse or 

 apiculate, entire or the lower with some .small teeth, caue.scently puberulent or beneath more 

 pube,scent : thyrsus virgate, 4 to 12 inches long, den.se; the racemiform clusters erect or 

 barely spreading in age, when elongated mostly secuud, and even with the apex at length 

 recurved : heads 3 or 4 lines long : bracts of the involucre lanceolate-oblong or oblong-linear, 

 mostly obtuse, externally somewhat puberuleut : rays 7 to 12, fewer than the disk-flowers: 

 akenes minutely pubescent. — Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. 1. c. ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 203 ; Gray, 

 Bot. Calif, i. 319. S. pnbenda, Cliam. & Schlecht. in Linn. vi. 502, not Nutt. S. petioluris, 

 Hook. & Arn. Bot. Beech. 145, partly. S. velntina, DC, var. " panicula contracta," DC. Prodr. 

 V. 332, Hivnke, whose "Real del Monte" is Monterey, California. — Dry ground, California 

 to the borders of Nevada and Mexico. 



Var. Nevadensis, Gray. ThjTsus and its clusters more secund : heads rather 

 smaller : involucre uK^stly glabrous. — Bot. Calif. 1. c. — Sierra Nevada, California, and 

 Nevada from Plumas Co. to Owens Valley, &c. Transition to S. nemoraUs. 

 S. nemoralis, Ait. Mostly low, with the fine and uniform close pubescence either soft or 

 (in age and in dried specimens) minutely scabrous : leaves from spatulate-obovate to ob- 

 lanceolate or somewhat line.ir; upper entire and small (half-inch or more long) ; radical and 

 lower cauline sparingly serrate : thyrsus and its compact racemiform clusters secund, com- 

 monly recurved-spreadiug : heads 2 or 3 lines long : bracts of the involucre oblong-linear or 

 narrower, obtuse, smooth and glabrous: flowers (appearing rather early) deep yellow : rays 

 5 to 9, usually more numerous than the disk-flowers : akenes closely pubescent. — Kew. iii. 213 ; 

 Pursh, Fl. ii. 537 ; DC. Prodr. v. 333 ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 220. S. hispida, Muhl. in 

 Willd. Spec. iii. 2063 ; Pursh, Fl. ii. 541. S. conferta, Poir. Diet. viii. 459. S. cinerascens, 

 Schwein. in Ell. Sk. ii. 375. S. decemflora, DC. Prodr. v. 322. S. puhcrnin, DC. 1. c. 333, 

 not Nutt. — Dry hills or sterile soil, throughout Canada and Saskatchewan to Florida and 

 Texas, and west to Arizona, Utah, and Nevada; in the ea.stern region soft-cinereous; be- 

 yond the Mis.sissippi often greener and more scabrous ; or in Utah and New Mexico greenish 

 and hardly scabrous. In the Rocky Mountains and northward mostly occur low and more 

 canescent forms. (Adj. Mex.) 



Var. incana, Gray, Proc. 1. c. Dwarf, a span to a foot high : leaves oval or oblong, 

 rigid, more or less canescent, sometimes rather strongly serrate, sometimes mostly entire : 

 racemiform clusters erect or the lower somewhat spreading, collected in a dense oblong or 

 conical thyrsus. — *S. mollis, Bartl. Ind. Sem. Hort. Ga?tt. 1836,5; DC. Prodr. v. 279; in 

 cult, specimens the involucral bracts are narrowish and somewhat acute, as also in one form 

 of .S'. liiciDia, Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 221 (excl. var.), while in a similar one, collected with it by 

 Nicollet, they are linear-oblong and obtuse. — Plains of Minnesota and Dakota (Nicollet, &c.) 

 to the Rocky Mountains of Montana and Colorado. (Adj. Mex ) 

 S. nana, Nutt. A span to "a foot high, canescent wdth minute dense puberulence, not .sca- 

 lirons in age : leaves mostly obovate or spatulate and entire, small : heads (3 lines long) 

 broad, few or rather numerous in an oblong or corymbiform panicle, not at all secund : 

 bracts of the involucre oval or oblong, very obtuse : otherwise nearly as S. nemoralis. — Nutt. 

 Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. 1. c. 327 (in herb. " S. pnmila ") ; Torr. & Gray, 1. c. — Rocky Moun- 

 tains and high plains, Wyoming to N. Arizona and N. E. Nevada; first coll. by Nuttall. 

 b. Hispid ulous-scabrous, rigid, green! 

 S. radula, Nutt. Stem a foot or two high, scabro-puberulent : leaves rigidly coriaceous, 

 short, loosely reticulate-veined, occasionally with well-developed lateral ribs, obtuse, sparsely 

 serrate or entire, from oval or obovate to oblong-spatulate (lowest 2 or 3 inches long, upper- 

 most an inch or less, or rounded ones on the branches reduced to half or quarter inch), very 

 hispidulous-scabrous at least on the veins, the midrib and margins often hispid : branches of 

 the thyrsus secund and when well developed recurved-spreading : heads 2 and at most 3 



