I5O FLOWERS OF THE FIELD AND FOREST. 



points upon which chief reliance is placed for their discrimina- 

 tion, are, for the most part, minute; such as the character of the 

 scales of the involucre, the shape and veining of the leaves, and 

 the relative length of the outer or ray flowers." 



This species is common, growing in rich moist thickets and 

 woodlands, flowers from August to October, and is certainly one 

 of the prettiest of the genus. It is easily distinguished from 

 the two other common species, 5. bicolor and 5. latifolia, which 

 like this, bear their flowers in the axils of the leaves, by the 

 stem, which is round and smooth, while the stem of the first- 

 named is covered with grayish hairs, and that of the other is 

 distinctly angled. 



Though there are upwards of fifty species of Golden-Rod in 

 this country alone, only one may be found native in all Europe, 

 the 5. Virga-aurea, or the Golden-Rod Solidago of the old herb- 

 alists, a native also of our northern regions. All reference to the 

 Golden-Rod in English literature must be applied to that species. 

 This common name of the familiar home plant, which in the old 

 times was found in every cottage door-yard, 



" And golden-rods and tansy running high, 

 That o'er the pale-tops smiled on passers-by; 

 Flowers in my time which every one would praise, 

 Though thrown like weeds from gardens nowadays," 



would naturally be brought by the English emigrants and applied 

 to the old favorites whose pleasant greetings in the forests of the 

 New World would remind them of the old home across the seas. 

 I learn from Prof. Meehan that the name of the genus Soli- 

 dago is usually referred to Linnaeus, though he credits it to 



