5g EHYTHEA. 



Solidago in point of liabit, Brachych^ta is conspicuous. 

 Eafinesque, the discoverer of this type, took it for nothing 

 more than a cordate-leaved species of Solidago. It has how- 

 ever, a very remarkably short pappus for a Golden Kod, and 

 this 'is found to consist not of bristles but of narrow paleae; 

 and among these homochromous aster-allies this kind of 

 character appears to signify more than it does in Aster and 

 Erigeron. Doubtless, therefore, this genus is to be main- 

 tained. 



The original specific name oE the plant does not appear to 



me to have been restored, and I here give it place. 



B. sphacelata. Solidago sphacelata, Raf. Ann. Nat. 14 

 (1820). Solidago cordata, Short. Catal. Kentucky Supplem. 

 (1833). Brachyris ovatifolia, DO. Prodr. v. 813 (1836). 

 Brachychceta cordata, Torr. & Gray,Fl. ii. 194 (1842.) 



There is an extensive group of herbaceous perennials ex- 

 clusively western and mostly montane so much allied to 

 Solidago that if the whole group were introduced into that 

 genus, they would not create within it anything like so strong 

 an element of diversity as several which men are content to 

 admit within the limits of Aster, create in that genus. The 

 plants I have in mind are the types of Sir William 

 Hooker's Pyrrocoma and Mr. Nuttall's Homo]pappus. I can 

 make of these but one good genus; but the genus is as per- 

 fectly natural, as easily recognizable and as readily definable 

 as Solidago itself. The plants differ from that genus osten- 

 sibly by their few and large heads, in having their involucral 

 bracts more or less conspiciously herbaceous-tipped, and in 

 their pappus, which is brownish or reddish, whereas in Soli- 

 dago this is white. In this red hue of the pappus they are 

 at accord with the South American genus Hoorehekia, now 

 generally known under the much later name of Aplopappus. 

 But from Hoorehekia they differ again in the character of the 

 involucral bracts, and in having few and small rays. But in 

 their mode of growth from a tap root, without the least hint 

 of any spreading by underground shoots, they are distinctly 

 nnlitft either Solidaao, or Hoorehekia, or any other of those 



