SOLIDAGO ULMIFOLIA. 

 ELM-LEAVED GOLDEN-ROD. 



NATURAL ORDER, COMPOSIT.E. 



SOLIDAGO ULMIFOLIA, Muhlenberg. — Stem smooth, the branches hairy; leaves thin, elliptical- 

 ovate or oblong-lanceolate, pointed, tapering to the base, loosely veined, beset with soft 

 hairs beneath ; racemes panicled, recurved-spreading; scales of the involucre lanceolate- 

 oblong ; rays about four. (Gray's Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States. 

 See also Chapman's Flora of the Southern United States, and Wood's Class-Book of 

 Botany.) 



O work professing to give a general view of the native 

 flowers of the United States would do justice to its 

 professions unless it had something to say of the Golden-rods, 

 for they are among the most distinguished of American flowers. 

 Everybody who knows anything of our wild scenery knows the 

 Golden-rod ; and no picture or description of an American 

 autumn landscape would be complete without the Golden-rod as 

 an essential part thereof. Our polite literature is full of 

 allusions to this flower: the best remembered being perhaps 

 that by Bryant in his " Death of the Flowers " — 



" The Wind flower and the Violet, they perished long ago, 

 And the Briar-rose and the Orchis died amid the summer glow ; 

 But on the hill the Golden-rod, and the Aster in the wood, 

 And the yellow Sun-flower by the brook in autumn beauty stood. 

 Till fell the frost from the clear cold heaven, as falls the plague on men. 

 And the brightness of their smile was gone, from upland, glade and glen." 



Our country is famous for the fading tints of its autumn foli- 

 age ; but the rich yellow flowers of the Golden-rod mixing with 

 the falling leaves do much towards the reputation for unsur- 

 passed beauty which American autumn scenery enjoys. There 

 are nearly fifty different species in the genus, and with one or 



i.JOS) 



