GOLDEN-ROD AND ASTERS. 



235 



stem are minutely rough), and terminating in a ra- 

 diating, much-branched flower cluster. Flower tiny, 

 in little crowded clusters, with fifteen 

 to twenty short rays, light golden 

 yellow. Flower clusters flat- topped 

 and not showy in color, supported by 

 small -leaved, wiry stems. This species 

 is common on river banks, in wet shaded 

 places, and on the borders of woods ; it 

 grows from two to three feet high. 



7. Solidago Canadensis. Canada 

 golden-rod. Blooms about the middle 

 of August. Leaves three-ribbed, rough - 

 hairy, sharply toothed, and deep green ; 

 sometimes they are almost without teeth. 

 Beneath, they are always covered with 

 soft, downy hairs. Stem rough-hairy, 



stout, and hardly cylindrical. Flower small, green- 

 ish golden yellow, with from five to seven short 

 rays. Flower clusters spread with graceful curves 

 in an ample plume sometimes one-sided. A very 

 common species on the borders of roads, thickets, 

 and fields, varying greatly in the roughness and 

 hairiness of stem and leaf, and growing from three 

 to six feet high. Not found at the seaside. 



8. Solidago rugosa. Rough-stemmed golden- 

 rod. Blooms about the middle of August. Leaves 



S. lanceolata. 



