NATIVE WILD FLOWERS 



scented Pyrolas, and the Wild Koses. Many of the fair 

 flowers have faded and gone, but we are not quite deserted; 

 we have yet our graceful Asters, our pretty Gayfeathers, 

 our Sunflowers, Coneflowers and the blue Gentians, and 

 brightening the waysides with many a gay, golden sceptre- 

 like branch, our hardy, sunny Goldenrods, varying in 

 color from gorgeous orange to pale straw-color, from the 

 tall stemmed 8. gigantea to the slender wand-like forms of 

 the dwarf species, of which we possess many kinds, some 

 with hoary foliage, others with narrow willow-like leaves of 

 darker hue. On the grassy borders of inland forest streams 

 we find the Goldenrods; they seem to accommodate them- 

 selves to every kind of soil and situation. The rocky clefts 

 of islands are gay with their bright colors, the moist shores 

 of lakes, the sterile, dusty waysides, corners of rail-fences 

 or the forest shades, no spot so rude but bears one or another 

 species of these hardy plants; a coarse but grand genus, 

 and not without its value. Not for ornament alone is the 

 Goldenrod prized. The thrifty wives of the old Canadian 

 settlers prized it as a dye-weed, and gathered the blossoms 

 for the coloring matter that they extracted from them, with 

 which they dyed their yarn yellow or green. 



One of the late flowering species, S. latifolia, is remark- 

 able for its fragrance ; it is slender in habit, the lax branches 

 trailing upon the ground in grassy woodlands. The leaves 

 are large, very sharply and coarsely toothed, margined on 

 the leafstalk, terminating in a slender point at the apex. 

 The blossoms, which are larger than those of many of the 

 taller species, are clustered in the axils of the large thin 

 leaves at rather distant intervals along the slender branches ; 

 the silky pappus of the winged seeds is tinged with purplish- 

 brown, the flowers are golden-yellow. 



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