Its chief dis 



COMPOSITE FAMILY 



Its chief distinguishing characteristic lies in the short, 

 rough hairs of the stem and of the leaves. The leaves are 

 rounded at the base and are usually very short in compari- 

 son with the height of the plant. 



COMPOSITE COMPOSITE FAMILY 



Solidago bicolor, L. 



Whitish Silver-rod, 



Pale Goldenrod, 



September-October ' White Goldenrod, 



Silver-weed, 

 Belly-ache-weed. 



Solidago: for derivation see altissima. 

 Bicolor: Latin for two colours. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: dry, sandy soil of the Commons. 



THE PLANT: erect, six inches to two feet tall or taller; 

 the stem simple or branched, usually stout, having hoary, 

 matted wool. 



THE LEAVES: alternate; obovate, oblong, or sometimes 

 lanceolate; two inches to four inches long; with soft matted 

 wool on both surfaces; mostly obtuse or sometimes acute 

 at the apex; narrowed into long petioles or sessile or nearly 

 so; dentate; often entire. 



THE FLOWER HEADS : small, clustered in an interrupted or 

 crowded panicle at the ends of slender terminal branches 

 that are closely set with small leaves of nearly uniform 

 size; "the green tips of the scales of the involucre which 

 are often so obvious in this species, are only faintly, if at 

 all, perceptible," in the Nan tucket specimen. 



THE FRUIT: achenes; pappus of bristles. 



This is the easiest of the Nantucket Goldenrods to de- 

 termine. It must be a Goldenrod, one thinks, from the 

 straight, wand-like stem, and the generally lanceolate 



373 



