HARPER'S GUIDE TO WILD FLOWERS 



And count as mean the common day. 



Meseems the world has not so much 

 Superfluous beauty that we may 



Blight anything with scornful touch 



'• In times long past the harebell's grace 

 I blent with this resplendent spray; 

 And one I loved would lean her face 



Toward their contrasted hues, and say, 

 ' The sun-like gold, the heavenly blue, 



I know not which delights me most!' 

 Sacred are both, dear heart, to you: 



They lift your feet from earth's dim coast." 



— Lucy Larcom. 



The flowers have rays, and all grow together in racemes 

 or corymbs, or in clusters along the stem. 



Solidago squarrbsa.— Family, Composite. A stout - stemmed 

 species, 2 to 5 feet high. Leaves, toothed, veiny, large, with 

 margined petioles. Heads of flowers large, clustered in 'leafy, 

 compound, elongated spikes. August to October. 



Mountains of Virginia and northward to the hills of Ver- 

 mont. 



S. latifblia has a crooked, zigzag stem, 1 to 3 feet high, smooth, 

 simple or branched. Leaves, thin, large, 6 inches or less in 

 length, sharply toothed, acute at apex and base. Flowers, with 

 3 or 4 rays, the heads clustered in axils of the leaves or raceme- 

 like at ends of branches. 



Southward among the mountains, northward in dry woods. 



5. caesia A common golden-rod. It is late in flowering. 



Stem, smooth, or with a soft bloom which rubs off. Flowers, 

 pale yellow, closely clustered along the stem, in the axils, and 

 compactly panicled at the top. Leaves, sessile, long, narrow, 

 serrate, feather- veined. A delicate, graceful, upright plant. 

 August to October. 



In deciduous forests from Maine to Minnesota and south- 

 ward. 



S. htspida. — The manner of growth of this species is similar to 

 the white golden-rod (S. bicolor, p. 134). Flowers, in small clusters 

 in the upper leaf-axils, also in a crowded, narrow panicle (a 

 thyrsus) at the top of the stem. Leaves, the lower oval or ob- 

 tuse, short- petioled, softly hairy, toothed; upper, sessile, lance- 



214 



