56 ERITHEA. 



the all-important matter of habit — remands even Solidago 

 to Aster because it has not what he would call a 

 character. Every American botanist will protest against 

 this amalgamation of Aster and Solidago as unnatural, and 

 not to be seriously thought of; but every such protest will be 

 virtually asserting that a genus is a genus whether it have a 

 character or not. 



I am far from meaning to say that there is not a proper 

 natural genus Solidago which may be known by some char- 

 acter, as well as by a fades of its own. But this is not the 

 Solidago of De Candolle and of Bentham and of Asa Gray; 

 in other words, not the Solidago that Dr. Kuntze attempted 

 to find characters for and could not- And I am quite of the 

 opinion that most of the asteraceous genera when limited 

 according to habit, will be found supported also by some 

 organographic peculiarities. Tbisis equivalentto saying that, 

 in my judgment due value has not of late been accorded to 

 certain characteristics of the corollas, achenes and other 

 organs, either of flower or fruit. 



Taking Solidago then, as a genus at once most natural, 

 and sure of future recognition, its integrity will be greatly 

 fortified by excluding from it, first of all, Eidliamia, the 

 type species of which are so unlike it in aspect that not even 

 Linnaeus at first view thought of them as belonging in Soli- 

 dago. Nuttall in 1818 first indicated the characters of the 

 group and proposed the name, but as subgeneric under Soli- 

 dago, rather than as a genus; not hesitating, however, to ex- 

 press a conviction that the plants are, after all, more nearly 

 allied to Brachyris (that is, Outierrezia euthamice T. & G. 

 which Pursh had disposed as a new species of Solidago), than 

 to Solidago* Since Euthamia differs from Solidago just as 

 Sericocarpus from Aster, that is, by a different habit and 

 inflorescence and silky-villous turbinate achenes, he who 

 maintains Sericocarpus while suppressing Euthamia acts 

 unreasonably. The necessity of restoring 



Euthamia 



M 



ual; and since that has been issued, I have learned with no 



