COMPOSITE FAMILY. 195 



32. INULA, ELECAMPANE. (Ancient Latin name.) Fl. summer. ^ 

 I. Hel6nium, COMMON ELECAMPANE. In old gardens and nat. from 



Eu. by roadsides ; a stout herb, with steins 3 - 5 3 high from a thick mucilagi- 

 nous root (used in medicine), large entire leaves woolly beneath, those from the 

 root ovate and petioled, the others partly clasping; heads large, but the rays 

 very narrow. 



33. CHRYSOPSIS, GOLDEN ASTER. (Name from two Greek words 

 meaning golden in appearance, from the yellow flowers.) Low herbs, wild 

 chiefly S. & W., in dry and barren or sandy soil : fl. summer and autumn. 

 C. graminifdlia, from Delaware S. : silvery-silky, with long lance-linear 



and grass-like shining nerved leaves, and single or few heads. 2/ 



C. falcata, on the coast, from Cape Cod to New Jersey : only 4' - 10' high, """ 

 woolly, clothed to the top with short and linear 3-nerved rigid leaves, which are 

 often curved or scythe-shaped (whence the specific name); heads small, fr~^~{b. I 

 corymbed. 2/ 



C. gOSS^pina, from Virginia S. : white-cottony all over (whence the name), 

 with oblong obtuse rarely toothed leaves, and few pretty large heads. ^ 



C. Mariana, the commonest species, from Long Island S. : silky with long 

 and weak hairs, or smoothish when old, with oblong leaves, and a few corymbed 

 heads on glandular peduncles. ^ 



C. Villosa, from Wisconsin 8. & W. : coarsely hairy and somewhat hoary, 

 leafy to the top, with corymbed branches bearing single heads on short pedun- 

 cles, and narrow-oblong leaves. 2^ 



34. SOLID AGO, GOLDEN-ROD. ( Old name, from Latin word to make 

 whole, from supposed healing qualities.) There arc very many species, flow- 

 ering through late summer and autumn. See Manual and Chapman's S. 

 Flora. The following are a few of the very commonest. ^ 



1. Heads clustered in the axils of the feather-veined leaves. 



S. bicolor. Pale and downy or hairy, with oblong or lance-oblong scarcely' 1 "-; 

 toothed leaves, and small bonds with cream-colored or nearly white ray -flowers \( 



S. Iatif61ia, of shaded banks N. : smooth, with broadly ovate pointed and 

 sharply serrate thin loaves, and bright yellow ray-flowers. 



S. CSesia is like the last, but with more branched and glaucous stems, and 

 lanceolate or lance-oblong sessile leaves. 



2. Heads in racemes forming a terminal panicle. 

 * Learcs father-veined, not 3-ril>bed. 



S. argllta. Smooth, with the lowest and root-leaves oblong or lance-oval 

 pointed and sharply toothed, the upper narrower and entire ; the slender one- 

 sided naked racemes widely spreading or drooping. 



S. altissima, badly named, as it is mostly only 2 - 4 high, one of the 

 earliest-flowering Golden-rods, with rough-hairy stem, small lance-ovate or 

 oblong and serrate very veiny leaves, and one-sided recurving racemes of small 

 heads of bright-yellow flowers. 



* * Leaves feather-veined and indistinct.!}/ triple-ribbed, entire or nearly so, grayish. 

 S. nemoralis, in dry open ground, flowering soon after midsummer, only 



l-2 high, pale with very minute down ; the leaves spatulate-oblong or oblan- 

 ceolate ; one-sided dense racemes numerous and at length recurving, and flowers 

 bright golden-yellow. 



* * * Leaves plainly either 3-ribb d or triple-ribbed: racemes one-sided, crowded, 



spreading or r< curving and forming an ample panicle. 



S. Canad6nsis, has rough-hairy stems, lanceolate and usually serrate 

 pointed leaves rather downy beneath but rough above, and small heads with 

 short rays. 



S. gigantfea is smooth or Hmoothish, especially the stem, and with larger 

 heads and rays than the preceding. 



